Emotion, personality, and selective attention.

Examined the effect of presenting emotionally salient information when attention is focused away from the information. 109 undergraduates completed the Test Anxiety Scale, the Defensiveness Scale, and the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) 3–6 wks prior to a listening task. Emotionally salient material was embedded in the ignored channel of a dichotic listening task which Ss completed before taking the MAACL again. The emotional quality of the information presented in the ignored channel—outside awareness—exerted an influence on processing of information in the attended channel—within awareness. Sexually explicit information presented in the ignored channel was found to intrude upon awareness, whereas other kinds of information did not. State anxiety scores were predictive of these intrusions from outside awareness. Other personality measures were predictive of processing only when intrusions did not occur or when the information was presented to awareness. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)