Citation

Dieciuc MA, Maranges HM, Boot WR. PLoS One 2019; 14(12): e0224882.

Affiliation

Florida State University Department of Psychology, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0224882

PMID

31830063

Abstract

To what extent are low-level visual and attentional phenomena related to higher-level personality traits? Trait self-control is thought to modulate behavior via two separate mechanisms: 1) by preventing initial temptation and, 2) by inhibiting temptation when it occurs (disengagement). Similarly, the control of visual attention often entails preventing initial distraction by irrelevant but tempting (goal-similar) objects, and disengaging attention when it has been inappropriately captured. Given these similarities, we examined whether individuals higher versus lower in trait self-control would differ in their susceptibility to attention capture using mouse-tracking as a sensitive, online measure of how attentional dynamics resolve over time and space in response to a distracting visual cue. Using a variety of metrics of attention capture, we found that differences among people in trait self-control did not predict initial selection of visual information nor subsequent disengagement. Overall, these results suggest that trait self-control and attention capture operate via separate mechanisms.

Language: en