Schizotypy and latent inhibition: non-linear linkage between psychometric and cognitive markers

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 783 - 798
• Main Authors: Wuthrich, Viviana, Bates, Timothy C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 05.04.2001; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Creativity; Latent inhibition; Medical sciences; Personality disorders; Priming; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoticism; Schizotypal personality; Schizotypal personality disorder; Priming; Psychoticism; Schizotypal personality disorder; Creativity; Latent inhibition; Human; Symptomatology; Schizotypal personality; Priming effect; Information processing; Cognition; Vulnerability; Marker; Personality disorder
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00071-4

Auditory latent inhibition (LI) and schizotypy were measured in ( n=54), showing that LI was an inverted-U function of schizotypy score. Only average levels of schizotypy were associated with undiminished LI while both low- and high-SPQ subjects showed reduced LI. No relationship was found between LI and either psychoticism or any of the five NEO PI-R domains. These results complement the similar complex relationship of neuroleptic drug dose effects on LI in normals and schizophrenics. A priming task and the unusual uses and pattern meanings measures of creativity were related to personality measures of schizotypy, N, E, and O (but not the EPQ-R psychoticism, LI, or priming performance). Priming effects tracked the inverted-U function of schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ) scale scores shown in the LI task. It is suggested that LI is dependent on a non-linear interaction with masking task load and attentional allocation, modulated by schizotypy.