Increased distractibility in schizotypy: Independent of individual differences in working memory capacity?
Individuals with schizophrenia typically show increased levels of distractibility. This has been attributed to impaired working memory capacity (WMC), since lower WMC is typically associated with higher distractibility, and schizophrenia is typically associated with impoverished WMC. Here, participants performed verbal and spatial serial recall tasks that were accompanied by to-be-ignored speech tokens. For the few trials wherein one speech token was replaced with a different token, impairment was produced to task scores (a deviation effect). Participants subsequently completed a schizotypy questionnaire and a WMC measure. Higher schizotypy scores were associated with lower WMC (as measured with operation span, OSPAN), but WMC and schizotypy scores explained unique variance in relation to the mean magnitude of the deviation effect. These results suggest that schizotypy is associated with heightened domain-general distractibility, but that this is independent of its relationship with WMC.
['Marsh|John E|JE|', 'Vachon|François|F|', 'Sörqvist|Patrik|P|']
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007206:Individuality D008297:Male D008569:Memory Disorders D008570:Memory, Short-Term D011939:Mental Recall D010775:Photic Stimulation D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder D013028:Space Perception D014706:Verbal Learning D055815:Young Adult
Distraction Schizotypy Working memory capacity Schizophrenia Domain-specificity Verbal working memory Visuo-spatial working memory