Cognitive structuring in schizotypal college students.

Abstract

The Magical Ideation and Perceptual Aberration Scales were used to screen 406 college undergraduates for schizotypy. Twenty-four such schizotypal students were identified and willing to continue participation in the study. These 24 schizotypals were matched by sex, age, and year in school to normal controls. All subjects were then individually tested in a sorting task designed to assess cognitive structuring. In this task, students were presented with 24 amorphous clay shapes which they were asked to sort into groups so that the members of a group were as similar as possible in overall appearance. Participants then rated each stimulus on ten different bipolar physical attributes. The ten 9point scales included: short vs. tall, small vs. large, narrow vs. wide, Tough vs. smooth, angular vs. round, compact vs. dispersed, smooth vs. jagged, simple vs. complex, asymmetrical vs. symmetrical, and orientation (angle of view) unimportant vs. orientation important. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to analyze the data. A separate MDS solution was obtained from each condition. A solution allows an interpretation of the rules that underlie the decisions about which the stimuli shapes were sorted. These sets of rules were compared between the two conditions and significant differences were found. Interpretation of the differences indicated that schizotypals were heterogeneous in the set of rules they used, such that each individual utilized a unique set of rules, while the normals were homogeneous in their rules. It was concluded that a difference in the cognitive structuring of the environment is involved in the experience of schizotypy.