The effect of rumination and distraction on auditory hallucinatory experiences: An analogue experimental study

The cognitive model of voices suggests that negative appraisals of hallucinatory experiences result in responses, such as rumination, which maintain voice-hearing. Our principal aim was to investigate the effect of rumination on the frequency of voice-hearing.

A two-group randomised experimental design was employed using a non-clinical sample. A total of 106 participants completed baseline measures of trait rumination, hallucination-proneness, mood and state negative affect, and were presented with a voice-hearing paradigm. False feedback designed to cause a negative interpretation of auditory intrusions was provided and participants were randomly allocated to either a distraction or rumination condition. Participants performed the auditory task for a second time, and the total number of false alarms and distress scores were compared between groups.

A Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the manipulation of rumination was successful (p = 0.007). We did not detect a statistically significant difference between the distraction and rumination groups for total false alarms (p = 0.282) or distress (p = 0.387) scores.

Findings largely relate to a female undergraduate psychology sample.

Results of this non-clinical study do not support the hypothesis that rumination leads to an increase in the frequency of voice-hearing on a laboratory task.