Interpersonal Influences on Task-Irrelevant Thought and Imagery in a Signal Detection Experiment

Abstract

It was proposed that cognitive processes during a relatively “objective” auditory signal detection experiment might reflect the influence of immediately preceding interpersonal contact between the participant and experimenter as well as the longstanding thinking style or current concerns brought by the subject to the situation. Thirty-three Ss subjects, seventeen males and sixteen females participated in four experimental sessions, each of fifty minutes duration, under conditions in which instructions were presented face-to-face by E or with minimal contact (Interpersonal-Impersonal) and by an E who was same or opposite sex of the participant (Sex of E). Task-irrelevant Thought and Imagery was measured through systematic interruptions for frequent reports during sessions. Accuracy of detections and recurrent current concerns were also measured. Data indicated a significant effect of an opposite sex experimenter on reports of task-irrelevant thought with a trend for such an effect for the Interpersonal-Impersonal variable. Measures of recent current concerns and of a thought style involving poor attentional control also influenced cognitive processes during the signal detection experiments.