Paranormal Experience Profiles and Their Association With Variations in Executive Functions: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Kenneth Graham Drinkwater,Andrew Parker,Neil Dagnall,Andrew Denovan,Álex Escolà-Gascón

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.778312

Abstract

This study investigated relationships between inter-class variations in paranormal experience and executive functions. A sample of 516 adults completed self-report measures assessing personal encounter-based paranormal occurrences (i.e., Experience, Practitioner Visiting, and Ability), executive functions (i.e., General Executive Function, Working and Everyday Memory, and Decision Making) together with Emotion Regulation and Belief in the Paranormal. Paranormal belief served as a measure of convergent validity for experience-based phenomena. Latent profile analysis (LPA) combined experience-based indices into four classes based on sample subpopulation scores. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) then examined interclass differences. Results revealed that breadth of paranormal experience was associated with higher levels of executive functioning difficulties for General Executive Function, Working Memory, Decision Making, and Belief in the Paranormal. On the Everyday Memory Questionnaire, scores differed on Attention Tracking (focus loss) and Factor 3 (visual reconstruction), but not Retrieval (distinct memory failure). In the case of the Emotion Regulation Scale, class scores varied on Expressive Suppression (control), however, no difference was evident on Cognitive Reappraisal (reframing). Overall, inter-class comparisons identified subtle differences in executive functions related to experience. Since the present study was exploratory, sampled only a limited subset of executive functions, and used subjective, self-report measures, further research is necessary to confirm these outcomes. This should employ objective tests and include a broader range of executive functions.

Highlights

Drinkwater et al (2021b) found that greater personal involvement with the paranormal was associated with increased proneness to reality testing deficits, greater emotion-based reasoning, and higher paranormal belief
The present paper investigated relationships between personal paranormal encounters and executive functions
A range of indices determined the number of latent profiles: Akaike Information Criterion (AIC; Akaike, 1987), Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC; Schwarz, 1978), sample-size adjusted BIC, Lo-Mendell-Rubin-adjusted likelihood ratio test (LMR-A-LRT; Lo et al, 2001), and a measure of entropy (Ramaswamy et al, 1993)

Summary

Introduction

Drinkwater et al (2021b) found that greater personal involvement with the paranormal (i.e., experience, visiting practitioners and self-professed ability) was associated with increased proneness to reality testing deficits, greater emotion-based reasoning, and higher paranormal belief These results deepened conceptual understanding by demonstrating that nuanced variations in paranormal experience were related to subtle differences in cognitive-perceptual factors allied to subclinical delusion formation and thinking style. Executive functions denote interrelated mental activities comprising top-down processes (Burgess and Simons, 2005; Diamond, 2013), interference control (the ability to effectively select stimuli in accordance with set goals for further processing), working memory (short-term storage and manipulation of information), inhibition (selfcontrol and resistance to acting impulsively), and cognitive flexibility (ability to think outside pre-established frameworks) These component processes play an integral role in everyday activities such as planning, recall, dual-tasking, and attentional focus (Diamond, 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion