Prevention focus and conscientiousness drive accurate responding in stimulus detection

Abstract

Accurate stimulus classification is an important component of decision-making. This study investigated the combined effect of the Five Factor Model with Regulatory Focus personality traits on signal detection in a go/no-go paradigm. Conscientiousness factor analyzed into 2 components: c-perseverance and c-organization. C-perseverance correlated with both prevention and promotion factors while c-organization only correlated with prevention. Prevention predicted both greater sensitivity and slower response speed. C-perseverance was associated with a higher threshold for responding, while c-organization was associated with the reverse. These findings highlight the importance of self-regulation and trait mechanisms in go/no-go classification and may be used to inform recruitment and training techniques for occupations where speeded stimulus discrimination is key, such as for security or threat-detection organizations.