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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STROOP TASK PERFORMANCE AND DELUSION-PRONENESS IN NON-PSYCHIATRIC ADULTS
Title
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STROOP TASK PERFORMANCE AND DELUSION-PRONENESS IN NON-PSYCHIATRIC ADULTS.
Creator
Orem, Diana, Bedwell, Jeffrey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Delusions are symptomatic of a number of psychiatric disorders; however, nonpsychiatric adults have also been shown to vary on a propensity toward delusional thought, or "delusion-proneness." The current study examined whether there is a relationship between an individual's degree of delusion proneness (on a continuum) and performance on the Stroop task, a cognitive task thought to measure conflict response monitoring. It was theorized that reduced conflict response monitoring ability may...
Show moreDelusions are symptomatic of a number of psychiatric disorders; however, nonpsychiatric adults have also been shown to vary on a propensity toward delusional thought, or "delusion-proneness." The current study examined whether there is a relationship between an individual's degree of delusion proneness (on a continuum) and performance on the Stroop task, a cognitive task thought to measure conflict response monitoring. It was theorized that reduced conflict response monitoring ability may relate to (and perhaps cause) increased delusional propensity. A total of 35 nonpsychiatric college students completed a measure of delusion-proneness (Peter's et al. Delusion Inventory-21 item version; PDI-21), and a computerized version of the Stroop task with three conditions- congruent, incongruent, and neutral. It was hypothesized that PDI-21 scores would be positively correlated to Stroop interference contrast scores. Results revealed that delusion-proneness showed a statistically significant positive correlation with the Stroop reaction time contrast score, but not the accuracy constrast score, in the incongruent/congruent contrasts. Our pattern of results suggests that efficiency (i.e. reaction time) of Stroop performance is more sensitive to delusion-proneness, compared to the more gross measure of accuracy. This study appears to be the first to report this relationship across a continuum of delusion-proneness in a nonpsychiatric sample, and overall, the findings suggest that delusion-proneness is related to performance on a behavioral measure of conflict response monitoring and inhibitory control. This research may have implications on treatment interventions used with patients presenting with clinical delusions.
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Date Issued
2007
Identifier
CFE0001638, ucf:47225
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001638
THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL STIMULI ON COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO DELUSION INTENSITY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
Title
THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL STIMULI ON COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO DELUSION INTENSITY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA.
Creator
Orem, Diana, Bedwell, Jeffrey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Previous research has suggested that there are multiple psychological processes underlying delusional thought. While it appears that cognitive biases in certain reasoning and attention processes are related to delusion-proneness, the influence of emotion on these processes is not well understood. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional content on performance on tasks thought to measure attentional bias, preferential recall, and probabilistic reasoning in...
Show morePrevious research has suggested that there are multiple psychological processes underlying delusional thought. While it appears that cognitive biases in certain reasoning and attention processes are related to delusion-proneness, the influence of emotion on these processes is not well understood. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional content on performance on tasks thought to measure attentional bias, preferential recall, and probabilistic reasoning in individuals with schizophrenia and demographically matched controls. In order to account for level of delusion-proneness, participants also completed a multidimensional measure of delusional thought. It was hypothesized that individuals with schizophrenia would perform more poorly on both the emotional and neutral versions of these tasks compared to controls. It was also hypothesized that within each group, there would be a statistically significant emotion effect, indicated by a difference in performance on the emotional (compared to neutral) condition of each task. This emotion effect was expected to be larger in the schizophrenia group. Finally, it was hypothesized that the emotion effect would increase as the severity of delusional proneness increased for all participants, regardless of group. As hypothesized, the schizophrenia group performed more poorly on the tasks overall, though expected emotion effects were generally absent. There were no differences in the size of emotion effects between the groups on any of the cognitive tasks administered, and the emotion effect did not appear to increase as severity of delusion-proneness increased. Factors that may have contributed to this pattern of results are discussed. Implications of these findings on theoretical models of delusions and future directions for research in this area are also discussed.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002765, ucf:48091
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002765