Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits
Perceptual organization (PO) difficulties have repeatedly been reported in people with schizophrenia, and in healthy individuals with high levels of schizotypy traits, who are at increased risk for schizophrenia. In particular, poor performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) has been interpreted...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00285/full |
| _version_ | 1811259351714758656 |
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| author | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock |
| author_facet | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock |
| author_sort | Kirsten R. Panton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Perceptual organization (PO) difficulties have repeatedly been reported in people with schizophrenia, and in healthy individuals with high levels of schizotypy traits, who are at increased risk for schizophrenia. In particular, poor performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) has been interpreted as an atypically strong preference for global over local processing, even though these processes cannot be clearly disambiguated on this test. Here we use two separate versions of the Radial Frequency Search Task (RFST), a new index of PO abilities, to selectively investigate global and local processing of shape information in trait schizotypy. Schizotypy traits were assessed using the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief. Individuals selected for high and low levels of positive schizotypy [assessed with the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief Perceptual Aberration (PAb) scale] completed the EFT, along with the Global RFST and the Local RFST, all of which require participants to find a target shape amongst distractor elements. The High PAb group (n = 83) were less efficient (i.e., reactions times slowed more as the set size increased) than the Low PAb group (n = 146) on the Global RFST (significant group differences for Target Absent conditions only), but not the Local RFST. High and Low PAb groups also differed on other schizotypy traits, so the specificity of the results to positive schizotypy cannot be assured. Unexpectedly, no group differences were observed on the EFT; however, there was a small, but significant, positive correlation between RFST search efficiency and EFT performance, indicating that they shared some common processes. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that global (but not local) processing difficulties may be contributing to the poorer perceptual organization observed in groups with high levels of schizotypy traits. In addition, the confinement of this result to the Target Absent condition suggests that the underlying mechanism involves differences in decisional processes on the RFST between high and low schizotypy groups. The RFST shows promise as a useful tool for measuring specific perceptual organization abilities in non-clinical, and potentially clinical, samples. |
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4cdd0bfeeb8641ee84467a482d9d1868 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T18:30:12Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
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| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-4cdd0bfeeb8641ee84467a482d9d18682022-12-22T03:21:07ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402018-07-01910.3389/fpsyt.2018.00285378530Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality TraitsKirsten R. Panton0Johanna C. Badcock1Johanna C. Badcock2J. Edwin Dickinson3David R. Badcock4Human Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaDivision of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaCooperative Research Centre - Mental Health, Carlton, VIC, AustraliaHuman Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaHuman Vision Laboratory, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, AustraliaPerceptual organization (PO) difficulties have repeatedly been reported in people with schizophrenia, and in healthy individuals with high levels of schizotypy traits, who are at increased risk for schizophrenia. In particular, poor performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) has been interpreted as an atypically strong preference for global over local processing, even though these processes cannot be clearly disambiguated on this test. Here we use two separate versions of the Radial Frequency Search Task (RFST), a new index of PO abilities, to selectively investigate global and local processing of shape information in trait schizotypy. Schizotypy traits were assessed using the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief. Individuals selected for high and low levels of positive schizotypy [assessed with the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief Perceptual Aberration (PAb) scale] completed the EFT, along with the Global RFST and the Local RFST, all of which require participants to find a target shape amongst distractor elements. The High PAb group (n = 83) were less efficient (i.e., reactions times slowed more as the set size increased) than the Low PAb group (n = 146) on the Global RFST (significant group differences for Target Absent conditions only), but not the Local RFST. High and Low PAb groups also differed on other schizotypy traits, so the specificity of the results to positive schizotypy cannot be assured. Unexpectedly, no group differences were observed on the EFT; however, there was a small, but significant, positive correlation between RFST search efficiency and EFT performance, indicating that they shared some common processes. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that global (but not local) processing difficulties may be contributing to the poorer perceptual organization observed in groups with high levels of schizotypy traits. In addition, the confinement of this result to the Target Absent condition suggests that the underlying mechanism involves differences in decisional processes on the RFST between high and low schizotypy groups. The RFST shows promise as a useful tool for measuring specific perceptual organization abilities in non-clinical, and potentially clinical, samples.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00285/fullschizotypyperceptual organizationglobal processinglocal processingschizophrenia |
| spellingShingle | Kirsten R. Panton Johanna C. Badcock Johanna C. Badcock J. Edwin Dickinson David R. Badcock Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits Frontiers in Psychiatry schizotypy perceptual organization global processing local processing schizophrenia |
| title | Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_full | Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_fullStr | Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_short | Poorer Search Efficiency in Healthy Young Adults With High Schizotypal Personality Traits |
| title_sort | poorer search efficiency in healthy young adults with high schizotypal personality traits |
| topic | schizotypy perceptual organization global processing local processing schizophrenia |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00285/full |
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