Children induce an enhanced attentional blink in child molesters
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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
Anthony R Beech1, Ellis Kalmus, Steven P Tipper
1School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. a.r.beech@bham.ac.uk
Insights
The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon was studied in child molesters. A larger AB occurred when the first target was a child
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Forensic psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- The attentional blink (AB) is a cognitive phenomenon where perception of a second target (T2) is impaired if it closely follows a first target (T1).
- Increased salience of T1 can exacerbate the AB.
- Understanding factors influencing the AB is crucial for cognitive research and potential clinical applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of child-related stimuli on the attentional blink (AB) in individuals with a history of child molestation.
- To explore whether the AB paradigm can serve as a tool to assess interest in children among this population.
Main Methods:
- Participants diagnosed with child molestation were subjected to an attentional blink (AB) task.
- The first target (T1) stimulus varied between images of children and images of animals.
- Performance on the second target (T2) was measured to quantify the AB effect.
Main Results:
- A significantly larger attentional blink (AB) was observed when the initial target (T1) was a picture of a child compared to an animal.
- This finding suggests that the nature of the T1 stimulus influences the magnitude of the AB in this specific sample.
Conclusions:
- The attentional blink (AB) paradigm may be a sensitive measure for assessing the level of interest in children among individuals with a history of child molestation.
- Further research is warranted to validate this paradigm as a diagnostic or assessment tool in forensic psychology.
Abstract:
The attentional blink (AB) is a robust phenomenon that has been consistently reported in the cognitive literature. The AB is found when two target images (T1, T2) are presented within 500 ms of each other and errors are induced on the perceptual report of T2. The AB may increase when T1 has some salience to the viewer. This study examined the effects of using pictures of children as T1 on the AB in a sample of child molesters. A larger AB emerged in this sample when T1 was a picture of a child compared with when T1 was a picture of an animal. It is argued that this task may be potentially useful to assess child molesters' level of interest in children.
