Explicit and implicit Need for Cognition and bottom-up/top-down attention allocation

• Explicit and implicit Need for Cognition may jointly impact on attention allocation.
• We examined bottom-up and top-down attention allocation in a novelty oddball task.
• An effect of explicit NFC on bottom-up target processing was observed.
• We also found an explicit–implicit interaction on top-down target processing.
• This emphasizes the joint consideration of direct and indirect personality measures.

Need for Cognition (NFC), the tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking, is usually directly measured via self-report. In order to validate an indirect NFC Implicit Association Test, we followed up on evidence suggesting NFC to be related to electrocortical indicators of bottom-up and top-down attention allocation in an oddball paradigm. In 99 participants, we did not find effects of directly and indirectly measured NFC on the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli, but found a main effect of explicit NFC on bottom-up target processing and an interactive effect of explicit and implicit NFC on top-down target processing. These findings further implicate NFC in the modulation of attention allocation and highlight the usefulness of direct and indirect measures in individual differences research.