Investigating how individual differences in selective attention relate to schizotypy and altered states of consciousness

Measures of altered states of consciousness (ASC) are useful for understanding anomalies within conscious experiences. Within psychedelic clinical trials, ASC have been associated with long-term positive treatment outcomes for numerous types of mental illnesses. Schizotypal Personality Scale (STA), a set of personality traits that can be related to psychedelic-induced ASC, is associated with potential changes in selective attention, such as being less bound to previously learned associations (i.e., reduced associative blocking). Given the similarity between schizotypy and psychedelic-induced ASC, we hypothesized that there may be attentional differences in individuals with past experiences of ASC. This study examined how differences in selective attention relate to past experiences of ASC and STA. In Study 1, participants completed a visual categorization task designed to elicit associative blocking, the STA, and the ASC scale. Results revealed slow learning feature–category associations in participants high in ASC and STA. Study 2 tested whether this deficit in performance was due to widened attention by implementing additional inference trials that measured incidental learning of feature–feature associations. Results from Study 2 confirmed that participants high in ASC and STA show deficits in learning categories, but this was not accounted for by wider selective attention per se. Our results suggest that flexible or widened attention may not be the locus of cognitive changes associated with past experiences of ASC. Rather, by showing reliable latency in an error-driven learning task, we add to a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between cognition and ASC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)