Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Hallucination-proneness
• continuum
• source-memory
• jumbled-speech
• thematic

Acknowledgements

We thank Charles Fernyhough and David Smailes for their support with the research, which was supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT108720). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Rhiannon Thompson is a PhD researcher at Imperial College London, investigating the effects of the environment on young people's mental health. She has previously studied at The University of Oxford and Durham University.

Laura Hallas is currently a Covid19 Test Operative in Leeds. This follows studies at the University of Lincoln and Durham University. Her interests follow a phenomenological approach to mental health issues and social identities within minority populations.

Peter Moseley is a Senior Research Fellow at Northumbria University. His work focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with hallucinations and other psychotic-like experiences, in clinical and non-clinical populations.

Ben Alderson-Day is an Associate Professor in Psychology at Durham University and a member of Hearing the Voice, an interdisciplinary project exploring the experience of auditory verbal hallucinations. He is also co-chair of the Early Career Hallucinations Research (ECHR) Group.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number WT108720].