Effects of sex guilt and sexual stimulation on the recall of word associations.

Elicited free associations to a mixed list of double-entendre sexual and asexual words from 84 male undergraduates under conditions of sexual and no sexual stimulation (control). Ability to recall the associations was then studied in relation to individual differences in sex guilt. Recall was tested immediately after associations were elicited. Results indicate a significant interaction between stimulation and guilt. High-sex-guilt Ss showed better recall for associations elicited under the control condition. Conversely, low-sex-guilt Ss showed better recall under the sexual stimulation condition. Results also suggest that the sexuality-asexuality of stimulus words might be a significant factor in the recall errors of high- and low-sex-guilt Ss. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)