EXTERNAL VALIDITY OF 2 SCHIZOTYPY QUESTIO NNAIRES

The purpose of the present study was to compare the performance in sev eral neuropsychological tasks, as cognitive markers of vulnerability t o schizophrenia, of two normal population samples classified as high a nd low psychometrically schizotypal, according to MSTQ (Rawlings y Mac Farlane, 1994) and O-LIFE (Mason, Claridge and Jackson, 1994), as an e xternal validation procedure. Thirty three secondary school and 11 col lege students were selected from a normal sample of 185 subjects. The YSR (Achenback and Edelbrock, 1987) was also completed by the adolesce nts sample. Results fail to confirm differences between high and low p sychometrically identified schizotypic individuals, casting some doubt s about the usefulness of the questionnaries as early detection proced ures of risk for schizophrenic spectrum disorders. Possible causes of the negative results are analysed and some suggestions are offered for future research.