Brief Report Reduced Negative Priming in Schizotypal Subjects does reflect Reduced Cognitive Inhibition

Numerous studies have suggested, via the interpretation of the negative priming effect as a measure of cognitive inhibition, that schizotypal subjects are less able to inhibit irrelevant distracting information. Recent research has revealed, however, that negative priming effects can be caused by two quite different processes: distractor inhibition and perceptual review. Therefore, unequivocal conclusions concerning less efficient inhibition in schizotypal individuals are not possible from previous research. The present experiment minimises the contribution of perceptual review to negative priming and demonstrates that when a purer measure of inhibition is taken, schizotypal subjects are indeed less able to inhibit irrelevant distracting stimuli.