Noticing the frequently ignored: Investigating how individual differences in selective attention relate to schizotypy and altered states of consciousness
Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The current experiment examined individual differences in selective attention, a key faculty that allows people to focus on particular aspects of a scene or stimulus, related to experiences of altered states of consciousness (11-factor OAV scale), a measure used to gauge intensity of psychedelic experience in clinical trials searching for therapeutic implications, and schizotypy (STA), a measure of schizophrenic traits within personality. Previous studies have related the effects of psychedelic ingestion to schizophrenic symptomology. Further, STA measures have been found to correlate with disrupted associative blocking, a learning phenomenon related to selective attention. 116 participants completed a categorization task within an associative blocking paradigm and completed STA and OAV scales. Results revealed that high OAV scores were associated with lower accuracy during learning of feature-category associations, and both OAV and STA scores were associated with performance differences in a post-learning test phase. Study 2, n = 117, tested whether the deficit in accuracy in those high in OAV was due to widened attention by implementing inference trials which tested feature-feature associations. Results from Study 2 showed that participants high in OAV simply learn associations at slower rate with no correlation regarding inference trials. It may be the case that cognitive differences in altered states of consciousness, similar to those experienced in psychedelic states, may not be distinguished in basic selective attention tasks. Clinical trials using psychedelics continue to show promising results for treating an array of mental illness including PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Despite the increase in investigation of such substances, little research has attempted to understand the influence similar mental states have on cognition. A further investigation transitioning into cognitive awareness and flexibilities may be useful for therapeutic purposes by understanding the subjective effects one encounters during cathartic experience.
Author: Joseph Martis
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3201791746