Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Rob DudleyORCiD
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Introduction: It has been proposed that hallucinations occur because of problems with reality discrimination (when internal, self-generated cognitions are misattributed to an external, non-self source) and because of elevated levels of top-down processing. In this study, we examined whether visual reality discrimination abilities and elevated top-down processing (assessed via face pareidolia-proneness) were associated with how often non-clinical participants report visual hallucination-like experiences. Methods: Participants (N = 82, mean age = 23.12 years) completed a visual reality discrimination task and a face pareidolia task, as well as self-report measures of schizotypy and of the frequency of visual hallucination-like experiences. Results: Regression analysis demonstrated that the number of false alarms made on the visual reality discrimination task and the number of hits made on the face pareidolia task were independent predictors of the frequency of visual hallucination-like experiences. Correlations between performance on the tasks and levels of schizotypy were not statistically significant. Conclusions: These findings suggest that weaker visual reality discrimination abilities and elevated levels of top-down processing are associated with visual hallucination-proneness and are discussed in terms of the idea that clinical visual hallucinations and non-clinical visual hallucination-like experiences share similar cognitive mechanisms.
Author(s): Smailes D, Burdis E, Gregoriou C, Fenton B, Dudley R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
Year: 2020
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Pages: 113-125
Online publication date: 06/12/2019
Acceptance date: 29/09/2019
ISSN (print): 1354-6805
ISSN (electronic): 1464-0619
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2019.1700789
DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2019.1700789
PubMed id: 31810425
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
