Our results may help to understand previous inconsistencies in the literature with respect to the dependency of overreactivity to strong stimuli and perceptual sensitivity to weak stimuli. Some studies found support for the claim that sensitivity to weak stimuli and overreactivity arise from the same trait (Smith, 1968; Siddle et al., 1969; Edman et al., 1979), while other research findings suggested that sensitivity to weak stimuli and overreactivity are independent traits (Ellermeier et al., 2001; Evans and Rothbart, 2008). Our study demonstrated that when not controlled for reward reactivity to strong stimuli, the relation between punishment reactivity to strong stimuli and perceptual sensitivity might be suppressed. If this is the case, the dependency between punishment reactivity and sensitivity becomes apparent only when reward reactivity is kept constant. Discrepant and zero findings can be expected because differences in the distributions of reward reactivity introduce differences in the relation between punishment reactivity to strong stimuli and sensitivity to weak stimuli. The same holds for the relation between reward reactivity to strong stimuli and sensitivity to weak stimuli when not controlled for punishment reactivity. As previous studies did not take both punishment and reward reactivity to strong stimuli into account, this might explain their discrepant findings regarding the dependency of overreactivity to strong stimuli and perceptual sensitivity to weak stimuli.