Personality modulation of (un)conscious processing: Novelty Seeking and performance following supraliminal and subliminal reward cues

Gaëlle M. Bustin*, J. Quoidbach, Michel Hansenne, Rémi L. Capa

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study provides evidence that personality traits associated with responsiveness to conscious reward cues also influence responsiveness to unconscious reward cues. Participants with low and high levels of Novelty Seeking (NS) performed updating tasks in which they could either gain 1 euro or 5 cents. Gains were presented either supraliminally or subliminally at the beginning of each trial. Results showed that low NS participants performed better in the high-reward than in the low-reward condition, whereas high NS participants' performance did not differ between reward conditions. Interestingly, we found that low NS participants performed significantly better when rewards were presented unconsciously, whereas high NS participants' performance did not differ whether reward cues were presented subliminally or supraliminally. Our findings highlight the necessity of taking personality into account in unconscious cognition research. They also suggest that individual differences might determine whether implicit and explicit motives have similar or complementary influences.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)947-952
Number of pages6
JournalConsciousness and Cognition
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Conscious and unconscious processing
  • Novelty Seeking
  • Rewards
  • Subliminal

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