Looking differences in relation to examiner's attitude in paranoid patients and normal controls

The differences in amount and pattern of looking during interviews of 20 male paranoid patients and 20 nomral controls are investigated in relation to a female examiner's change of attitude, as indicated by change in the tone of her voice, by means of a cross-over design. The results indicate that paranoids do not follow the "decreased looking" model suggested for schizophrenics in other studies. Patients show a significant order effect, a higher overall amount of looking and a quite opposite pattern of looking across interviews as compared to controls. It is suggested that patients may have difficulties in regulating their visual behaviour according to examiner's attitude, resulting to a "stereotyped" pattern of looking. These findings are discussed with particular reference to visual information processing.