Abstract
ABSTRACT Introduction The impact of age on hallucination-proneness within healthy adult cohorts and its relation to underlying cognitive mechanisms is underexplored. Based on previously researched trends in relation to cognitive ageing, we hypothesised that older and younger adults, when compared to a middle adult age group, would show differential relations between hallucination-proneness and cognitive performance. Methods A mixed methods, between-groups study was conducted with 30 young adults, 26 older adults, and 27 from a “middle adulthood” group. Participants completed a source memory task, jumbled speech task, Launay-Slade hallucination scale, unusual experiences schedule, and control measures of delusion-proneness and attitudes to mental health. Results Compared to older age-groups, younger participants demonstrated better scores on the source memory task, and reported hearing more words in jumbled speech. Additionally, younger cohorts rated higher on hallucination-proneness and disclosed more unusual experiences on a customised schedule designed to gather further qualitative data. Jumbled speech scores positively correlated with hallucination-proneness scores, particularly for the “middle” age group. Source memory performance unexpectedly correlated positively with hallucination-proneness, although this may be the product of age differences in task performance. Conclusions Age differences in hallucination-proneness are evident on self-report and cognitive measures. Implications are discussed for potentially non-overlapping cognitive mechanisms underlying hallucination-proneness in non-clinical groups.
Highlights
The impact of age on hallucination-proneness within healthy adult cohorts and its relation to underlying cognitive mechanisms is underexplored
This broadly corresponds to the typical onset period for psychosis (18–25 years), but leaves open the question of what may drive hallucination-proneness at other life stages
Badcock et al (2017) have argued that hallucinations are commonly first reported amongst younger adults, the lack of literature on older populations does not reflect the reality of incidence rates: their meta-analysis found a sizeable minority of the aging population had hallucinatory experiences, estimates varied hugely (0.4%–37%)
Summary
The impact of age on hallucination-proneness within healthy adult cohorts and its relation to underlying cognitive mechanisms is underexplored. Results: Compared to older age-groups, younger participants demonstrated better scores on the source memory task, and reported hearing more words in jumbled speech. As with many areas of research, the majority of non-clinical hallucination-proneness research has been conducted with young, student participants (e.g., Bentall & Slade, 1985; Collignon et al, 2005). Older adults consistently perform worse than younger adults on speech-in-noise tasks, where top-down knowledge and expectation play a prominent role in detecting speech (Dubno et al, 1984). As such, they may be less likely to display top-down biases of the kind typically associated with false perception in younger cohorts. Cognitive markers of hallucination-proneness could change as a function of age
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