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.