PATTERNS OF COGNITIVE ASYMMETRY AND SYNDROMES OF SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY

The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, modeled on the nine compone nts of DSM-III-R schizotypy, was administered to 122 medical students along with the Thayer Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist and the Warrington Recognition Memory Test for words and faces. Close affi nities were found between a three-factor schizotypal personality struc ture and a three-syndrome model of schizophrenia. Different patterns o f cognitive asymmetry (word-face discrepancy scores) were related to A ctive and Withdrawn syndromes as in schizophrenia, and were related to high activation and general deactivation differences as predicted. A prospective single case study showed that a face-word discrepancy befo re a first episode of schizophrenia accurately predicted a Withdrawn p resenting syndrome. The consistency between syndromes of schizophrenia and schizotypal personality in a normal population suggests possible etiological links between the two, and it supports a dimensional view of psychosis and subclinical predispositions.