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A Comparative Study of Attentional Strategies of Schizophrenic and Highly Creative Normal Subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Margaret Dykes  and
Andrew McGhie
Margaret Dykes
Affiliation:
Kingston Psychiatric Hospital, Ontario
Andrew McGhie
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
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Summary

Frequent references have been made to the similarities between highly creative and psychotic thinking. This study attempts to test the hypothesis that one explanation for such a correspondence lies in the fact that individuals in both these populations habitually employ common attentional strategies which cause them to sample an unusually wide range of available environmental stimuli.

A group of highly creative adults and a group of equally intelligent but low creative adults were compared with a group of acute non-paranoid schizophrenic adults on three tests designed to assess attentional and other cognitive styles.

The results offer support to the view that both highly creative and schizophrenic individuals habitually sample a wider range of available environmental input than do less creative individuals. In the case of the schizophrenic this involuntary widening of attention tends to have a deleterious effect on performance, while, in contrast, the highly creative individual is more able to successfully process the greater input without this incurring a performance deficit.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 128 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 50 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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