The relationship between latent inhibition, divergent thinking, and eyewitness memory: A study on attention to irrelevant stimuli

TL;DR

This study explores how reduced latent inhibition affects creativity and eyewitness memory by examining attention to irrelevant stimuli.

Contribution

It links attenuated latent inhibition to both divergent thinking and inclusion of peripheral details in eyewitness accounts.

Findings

Participants with less latent inhibition performed better on a creativity task.

They also included more peripheral details in their eyewitness testimonies.

A latent inhibition effect was confirmed through slower learning in the LI Group.

Abstract

Latent inhibition is a retardation in learning about a stimulus due to its prior exposure without explicit consequences. It has been suggested that individuals who tend to show less latent inhibition possess a “leaky” attentional style, finding it difficult to inhibit the processing of irrelevant information, which would manifest as an ability to generate uncommon and creative ideas. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis within a new framework—the field of eyewitness memory—by investigating whether the degree of attenuated latent inhibition is associated with the inclusion of more peripheral (seemingly irrelevant) information in testimonies about a witnessed event. In an experiment involving 116 university students, the LI Group was pre-exposed without masking to a target auditory stimulus without consequences, while the CTRL Group did not receive this pre-exposure. Subsequently, both groups engaged in a learning phase where they had to learn the association between the target stimulus and a novel outcome. A latent inhibition effect was observed, with participants in the LI Group showing retardation in learning this association compared to the CTRL Group. Additionally, all participants completed the Alternative Uses Task to assess divergent thinking and provided eyewitness testimonies based on the viewing of a video of a criminal event. We confirmed the known relationship between attenuated latent inhibition and creativity, finding that the lesser the latent inhibition exhibited, the higher the performance on the Alternative Uses Task. Moreover, we found that a lower degree of latent inhibition was associated with a higher number of peripheral details included in the testimonies. These results are discussed in terms of the leaky attention hypothesis, and an alternative explanation based on cognitive flexibility. According to this, individuals exhibiting attenuated latent inhibition may have an intact capacity to ignore irrelevant stimuli but would be highly efficient at rapidly redirecting their attention when changes occur.

Figures