The relationship between incidental learning and multi-dimensional schizotypy as measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE)

Abstract

This paper describes a study carried out to investigate the relationship between incidental learning and multi-dimensional schizotypy as measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE; Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995). Whilst Jones, Gray, and Hemsley (1992) found incidental recall to be positively correlated with the ‘unusual perceptual experiences’ factor of Hewitt and Claridge’s (1989) three factor solution to the Schizotypal Personality Scale (STA; Claridge & Broks, 1984), research in this area is generally limited. Further to the development of the O-LIFE, a reliable measure of multi-dimensional schizotypy, the aim of the current study was to re-investigate the relationship between schizotypy and incidental learning. Seventy-five undergraduate students completed the O-LIFE alongside a task for incidental learning and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI; Wechsler, 1999). Participants were dichotomised into low and high schizotypy scoring groups and results revealed that those scoring highly on the Unusual Experiences (positive-schziotypy) scale of the O-LIFE demonstrated higher rates of incidental recall than did the low Unusual Experiences scoring group. No differences in incidental recall were observed on the other dimensions of schizotypy or on intelligence. These findings are one of the first reports of the relationship between incidental learning and the O-LIFE scales and are consistent with the wider literature, and point to one of the important cognitive correlates of high schizotypy, namely over-inclusiveness of associative relations.