title: Masked first name priming increases effort-related cardiovascular reactivity.
abstract: Recent research on motivational intensity has shown that explicit manipulations of self-focused attention (e.g., mirrors and video cameras) increase effort-related cardiovascular responses during active coping. An experiment examined whether masked first name priming, an implicit manipulation of self-focused attention, had similar effects. Participants (n=52 young adults) performed a self-paced cognitive task, in which they were told to get as many trials correct as possible within 5min. During the task, the participant's first name was primed for 0%, 33%, 67%, or 100% of the trials. First name priming, regardless of its frequency, significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity, particularly systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. Furthermore, the priming manipulation interacted with individual differences in trait self-focus: trait self-focus predicted higher SBP reactivity in the 0% condition, but first name priming eliminated the effects of individual differences. Implications for self-awareness research and for the emerging interest in priming effects on effort are considered.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, USA. p_silvia@uncg.edu
authors: Paul J
authors: PJ
authors: Silvia
authors: Hannah C
authors: HC
authors: Jones
authors: Casey S
authors: CS
authors: Kelly
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Zibaie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult