'Cognitive inhibition' and positive symptomatology in schizotypy

The negative priming paradigm (Tipper, 1985) was used to investigate the relationship between 'cognitive inhibition' and symptoms of reality distortion in schizotypy, after previous findings that the negative priming effect is reduced in both acute schizophrenics and high schizotypes (Beech, Powell, McWilliam & Claridge, 1989; Beech, Baylis, Smithson & Claridge, 1989). Following Frith's (1979) model, which suggests that the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are due to a failure of the inhibitory processes which normally limit the contents of consciousness, it was predicted that negative priming would be inversely correlated with levels of positive symptomatology, as measured by the CSTQ (Bentall, Claridge & Slade, 1989). The results supported the hypothesis, which confirms the usefulness of a symptom-oriented approach as well as providing some validation for the concept of schizotypy. It was concluded that high schizotypes, similarly to acute schizophrenics, show a reduction in 'cognitive inhibition', as was predicted by Frith's (1979) model.