Neuroticism as Mental Noise: A Relation Between Neuroticism and Reaction Time Standard Deviations.
- 1 January 2005
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Vol. 89 (1), 107-114
- https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.1.107
Abstract
Those higher in neuroticism are often more variable in their behavior and experience. On the basis of this observation, the authors hypothesized that the trait of neuroticism might be correlated with the variability of performance pertaining to relatively basic cognitive operations. Three studies involving 242 college undergraduates supported this prediction in that neuroticism correlated positively with the variability of performance across trials of reaction time tasks. These results link neuroticism to cognitive noise that intervenes between stimulus and response. Such noise has been associated with executive dysfunctions (e.g., frontal lobe injury) in previous research. The present findings are potentially useful for understanding why neuroticism often correlates with variations in the functionality of cognition and behavior.Keywords
This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit:
- Impulsive behavior and stimulus–response variability in choice reaction timeJournal of Research in Personality, 2005
- Personality as PerformanceCurrent Directions in Psychological Science, 2004
- The missing link in the relations between intelligence and personalityJournal of Research in Personality, 2003
- Borderline personality disorder from the perspective of general personality functioning.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2003
- Longitudinal investigation of mood variability and the ffm: neuroticism predicts variability in extended states of positive and negative affectPersonality and Individual Differences, 2002
- The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science.Psychological Bulletin, 1998
- Running from William James' Bear: A Review of Preattentive Mechanisms and their Contributions to Emotional ExperienceCognition and Emotion, 1998
- Neural organization of the defensive behavior system responsible for fearPsychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1994
- A Critical Analysis of Current Trait TheoryPsychological Inquiry, 1994
- Automatic AffectAmerican Behavioral Scientist, 1988