LATENT INHIBITION IN LOW AND HIGH PSYCHOTIC-PRONE NORMAL SUBJECTS

Two experiments were performed with adult human subjects which demonstrated latent inhibition, a retardation of learning following preexposure to a subsequently relevant stimulus. The first study, using an auditory procedure, replicated Baruch, Hemsley and Gray's (1988a, Personality and Individual Differences, 9; finding that high "psychotic-prone" normals, as assessed by Eysenck's Psychoticism Scale and Claridge and Broks' STA Scale, exhibit an attenuated latent inhibition effect as compared to low "psychotic-prones". The second study, using a newly developed visual procedure, obtained similar results. The attenuation of latent inhibition in high "psychotic-prone" normals was discussed in relation to attentional dysfunction in schizophrenia and the animal dopamine model of schizophrenia.