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Szymanek P, Homan M, van Elk M, Hohol M. Effects of expectations and sensory unreliability on voice detection - A preregistered study. Conscious Cogn 2024; 123:103718. [PMID: 38880020 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024]
Abstract
The phenomenon of "hearing voices" can be found not only in psychotic disorders, but also in the general population, with individuals across cultures reporting auditory perceptions of supernatural beings. In our preregistered study, we investigated a possible mechanism of such experiences, grounded in the predictive processing model of agency detection. We predicted that in a signal detection task, expecting less or more voices than actually present would drive the response bias toward a more conservative and liberal response strategy, respectively. Moreover, we hypothesized that including sensory noise would enhance these expectancy effects. In line with our predictions, the findings show that detection of voices relies on expectations and that this effect is especially pronounced in the case of unreliable sensory data. As such, the study contributes to our understanding of the predictive processes in hearing and the building blocks of voice hearing experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piotr Szymanek
- Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
| | - Marek Homan
- Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
| | - Michiel van Elk
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Mateusz Hohol
- Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
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Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274595. [PMID: 36103566 PMCID: PMC9473424 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
This investigation tested the effect of priming on pareidolia (the hearing of illusory words in ambiguous stimuli). Participants (41 women, 20 men, mean age 29.95 years) were assigned to primed (n = 30) or unprimed (n = 31) groups: the former were told the study was of ‘purported ghosts voices’, the latter ‘voices in noisy environments.’ Participants were assessed for perception of human voices within recordings of purported electronic voice phenomena (EVP), degraded human speech, normal human speech, and white noise. The primed group had significantly higher perception of voices within EVPs than in degraded speech, this difference was not found for unprimed participants. In contrast to the previous use of this design, the primed group did not have higher perception of voices in EVPs and degraded speech than did the unprimed group. The Aesthetic Sensitivity dimension of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) was associated with detection of degraded stimuli, but not with accuracy of stimulus identification. HSPS score was related to lifetime reporting of anomalous and paranormal experiences. This study partially replicates a paranormal priming effect and shows relationships between HSPS and detection of ambiguous stimuli and anomalous and paranormal experiences.
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Wang C, Yu L, Mo Y, Wood LC, Goon C. Pareidolia in a Built Environment as a Complex Phenomenological Ambiguous Stimuli. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:ijerph19095163. [PMID: 35564558 PMCID: PMC9103170 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19095163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
Pareidolia is a kind of misperception caused by meaningless, ambiguous stimuli perceived with meaning. Pareidolia in a built environment may trigger the emotions of residents, and the most frequently observed pareidolian images are human faces. Through a pilot experiment and an in-depth questionnaire survey, this research aims to compare built environmental pareidolian phenomena at different time points (6 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 a.m.) and to determine people’s sensitivity and reactions towards pareidolia in the built environment. Our findings indicate that the differences in stress level do not influence the sensitivity and reactions towards pareidolia in the built environment; however, age does, and the age of 40 seems to be a watershed. Females are more likely to identify pareidolian faces than males. Smokers, topers, and long-term medicine users are more sensitive to pareidolian images in the built environment. An unexpected finding is that most pareidolian images in built environments are much more easily detected in the early morning and at midnight but remain much less able to be perceived at midday. The results help architects better understand people’s reactions to pareidolia in the built environment, thus allowing them to decide whether to incorporate it appropriately or avoid it consciously in building design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Wang
- Intelligence and Automation in Construction Fujian Province Higher-Educational Engineering Research Centre, College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China; (C.W.); (L.Y.)
| | - Liangcheng Yu
- Intelligence and Automation in Construction Fujian Province Higher-Educational Engineering Research Centre, College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China; (C.W.); (L.Y.)
| | - Yiyi Mo
- College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China;
- Correspondence:
| | - Lincoln C. Wood
- Department of Management, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand;
| | - Carry Goon
- College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China;
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Salge JH, Pollmann S, Reeder RR. Anomalous visual experience is linked to perceptual uncertainty and visual imagery vividness. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 85:1848-1865. [PMID: 32476064 PMCID: PMC8289756 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01364-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2019] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
An imbalance between top-down and bottom-up processing on perception (specifically, over-reliance on top-down processing) can lead to anomalous perception, such as illusions. One factor that may be involved in anomalous perception is visual mental imagery, which is the experience of "seeing" with the mind's eye. There are vast individual differences in self-reported imagery vividness, and more vivid imagery is linked to a more sensory-like experience. We, therefore, hypothesized that susceptibility to anomalous perception is linked to individual imagery vividness. To investigate this, we adopted a paradigm that is known to elicit the perception of faces in pure visual noise (pareidolia). In four experiments, we explored how imagery vividness contributes to this experience under different response instructions and environments. We found strong evidence that people with more vivid imagery were more likely to see faces in the noise, although removing suggestive instructions weakened this relationship. Analyses from the first two experiments led us to explore confidence as another factor in pareidolia proneness. We, therefore, modulated environment noise and added a confidence rating in a novel design. We found strong evidence that pareidolia proneness is correlated with uncertainty about real percepts. Decreasing perceptual ambiguity abolished the relationship between pareidolia proneness and both imagery vividness and confidence. The results cannot be explained by incidental face-like patterns in the noise, individual variations in response bias, perceptual sensitivity, subjective perceptual thresholds, viewing distance, testing environments, motivation, gender, or prosopagnosia. This indicates a critical role of mental imagery vividness and perceptual uncertainty in anomalous perceptual experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes H Salge
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Otto-Von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Pollmann
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Otto-Von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Reshanne R Reeder
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Otto-Von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Williams JM, Carr M, Blagrove M. Sensory Processing Sensitivity: Associations with the detection of real degraded stimuli, and reporting of illusory stimuli and paranormal experiences. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Escolà-Gascón Á, Marín FX, Rusiñol J, Gallifa J. Pseudoscientific beliefs and psychopathological risks increase after COVID-19 social quarantine. Global Health 2020; 16:72. [PMID: 32731864 PMCID: PMC7391050 DOI: 10.1186/s12992-020-00603-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has led many countries to opt for social quarantine of the population. During this quarantine, communication systems have been characterized by disintermediation, the acceleration of digitization and an infodemic (excess and saturation of information). The following debate arises: Do the levels related to the psychotic phenotype and pseudoscientific beliefs related to the interpretation of information vary before and after social quarantine? OBJECTIVES This research aims to examine the psychological effects of social quarantine on the psychotic phenotype and pseudoscientific beliefs-experiences of the general nonclinical population. The following hypothesis was posed: social quarantine alters the levels of magical thinking, pseudoscientific beliefs and anomalous perceptions due to quarantine. METHODS A pre- and posttest analysis design was applied based on the difference in means, and complementary Bayesian estimation was performed. A total of 174 Spanish subjects responded to different questionnaires that evaluated psychopathological risks based on psychotic phenotypes, pseudoscientific beliefs and experiences before and after quarantine. RESULTS Significant differences were obtained for the variables positive psychotic symptoms, depressive symptoms, and certain perceptual alterations (e.g., cenesthetic perceptions), and a significant increase in pseudoscientific beliefs was also observed. The perceptual disturbances that increased the most after quarantine were those related to derealization and depersonalization. However, paranoid perceptions showed the highest increase, doubling the initial standard deviation. These high increases could be related to the delimitation of physical space during social quarantine and distrust towards information communicated by the government to the population. Is it possible that social alarmism generated by the excess of information and pseudoscientific information has increased paranoid perceptual alterations? CONCLUSIONS Measures taken after quarantine indicate that perceptual disturbances, subclinical psychotic symptoms and beliefs in the pseudoscience have increased. We discuss which elements of quarantine coincide with the social marginality theory and its clinical repercussions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Álex Escolà-Gascón
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences (FPCEE Blanquerna), Ramon Llull University, 34 Císter St., 08022, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Francesc-Xavier Marín
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences (FPCEE Blanquerna), Ramon Llull University, 34 Císter St., 08022, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Rusiñol
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences (FPCEE Blanquerna), Ramon Llull University, 34 Císter St., 08022, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Josep Gallifa
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences (FPCEE Blanquerna), Ramon Llull University, 34 Císter St., 08022, Barcelona, Spain
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Dagnall N, Drinkwater KG, O’Keeffe C, Ventola A, Laythe B, Jawer MA, Massullo B, Caputo GB, Houran J. Things That Go Bump in the Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of "Haunted Houses". Front Psychol 2020; 11:1328. [PMID: 32595577 PMCID: PMC7304295 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper contains a narrative overview of the past 20-years of environmental research on anomalous experiences attributed to "haunted house." This exercise served as a much-needed update to an anthology of noteworthy overviews on ghosts, haunts, and poltergeists (Houran and Lange, 2001b). We also considered whether new studies had incorporated certain recommendations made in this anthology. Our search revealed a relative paucity of studies (n = 66) on environmental factors that ostensibly stimulate haunt-type experiences. This literature was diverse and often lacked methodological consistency and adherence to the prior suggestions. However, critical consideration of the content revealed a recurring focus on six ambient variables: embedded (static) cues, lighting levels, air quality, temperature, infrasound, and electromagnetic fields. Their relation to the onset or structure of witness reports showed mostly null, though sometimes inconsistent or weak outcomes. However, such research as related to haunts is arguably in its infancy and new designs are needed to account better for environmental and architectural phenomenology. Future studies should therefore address four areas: (i) more consistent and precise measurements of discrete ambient variables; (ii) the potential role of "Gestalt influences" that involve holistic environment-person interactions; (iii) individual differences in attentional or perceptual sensitivities of percipients to environmental variables; and (iv) the role of attitudinal and normative influences in the interpretation of environmental stimuli. Focused scrutiny on these issues should clarify the explanatory power of evolutionary-environmental models for these and related anomalous experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil Dagnall
- Department of Psychology, Manchester Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Kenneth G. Drinkwater
- Department of Psychology, Manchester Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Ciarán O’Keeffe
- School of Human & Social Sciences, Buckinghamshire New University, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
| | | | - Brian Laythe
- Institute for the Study of Religious and Anomalous Experience, Jeffersonville, IN, United States
| | | | | | | | - James Houran
- Laboratory for Statistics and Computation, ISLA—Instituto Politécnico de Gestão e Tecnologia, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
- Integrated Knowledge Systems, Dallas, TX, United States
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