Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:09:25.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Avoiding False Negatives: Are Some Auditory Hallucinations an Evolved Design Flaw?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2009

Guy Dodgson  and
Sue Gordon
Guy Dodgson*
Affiliation:
Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, UK
Sue Gordon
Affiliation:
Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, UK
*
Reprint requests to Guy Dodgson, Greenacres Centre, Green Lane, Ashington, Northumberland NE63 8BL, UK. E-mail: guy.dodgson@ntw.nhs.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: This paper draws on cognitive psychology research and clinical observation to propose a model for the formation of auditory hallucinations that are located externally, and experienced in noisy environments. Method: This model highlights a series of cognitive processes that may make an individual prone to detecting false positives, i.e. believing they have heard something that is absent. A case study is used to illustrate the model. Results: It is suggested that the false positives may be a by-product of a perceptual system that has evolved to reduce false negatives in conditions of threat. The term hypervigilance hallucination is proposed for this type of experience. Conclusion: The clinical implications of the model are discussed.

Keywords

Auditory hallucinationshypervigilancecognitive psychologyevolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , May 2009 , pp. 325 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, A. T. and Rector, N. A. (2003). A cognitive model of hallucinations. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentall, R. P. and Slade, P. D. (1985). Reality testing and auditory hallucinations: a signal-detection analysis. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 24, 159–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brebion, G., Smith, M. S., Amador, X., Malaspina, D. L. and Gorman, J. M. (1998). Word recognition, discrimination accuracy and decision bias in schizophrenia: association with positive symptomatology and depressive symptomatology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 604–609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Copolov, D., Trauer, T. and Mackinnon, A. (2004). On the non-significance of internal versus external auditory hallucinations. Schizophrenia Research, 69, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crane, S. (1895). The Red Badge of Courage. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Delespaul, P., deVries, M., and van Os, U. (2002). Detriments of occurrence and recovery from hallucinations in daily life. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 37, 97–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, J. A. and Deutsch, D. (1963). Attention: some theoretical considerations. Psychological Review, 70, 80–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, D., Garety, P. A., Kuipers, E., Fowler, D. and Bebbington, P. E. (2002). A cognitive model of persecutory delusions. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 331–347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C. D. (1979). Consciousness, information processing and schizophrenia reflect a disorder in the central monitoring of action. Psychological Medicine, 19, 359–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, C. D. and Done, D. J. (1989). Experiences of alien control in schizophrenia reflect a disorder in the central monitoring of action. Psychological Medicine, 19, 359–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P. A., Kuipers, E., Fowler, D., Freeman, D. and Bebbington, P. E. (2001). A cognitive model of the positive symptoms of psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 31, 189–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, P. (1992). Depression: the evolution of powerlessness. Hove: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Green, D. M. and Swets, J. A. (1966). Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics. New York: Krieger.Google Scholar
Harvey, A., Watkin, E., Mansell, W. and Shafran, R. (2004). Cognitive Behavioural Processes across Psychological Disorders: a transdiagnostic approach to research and treatment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haselton, M. G. and Nettle, D. (2006). The paranoid optimist: an integrative evolutionary model of cognitive bias. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemsley, D. R. (1993). A simple (or simplistic?) cognitive model for schizophrenia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 633–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunter, M. D. (2004). Locating voices in space: a perceptual model for auditory hallucinations? Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 9, 93–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaspers, K. (1962). General Psychopathology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Judkins, M. and Slade, P. D. (1981). A questionnaire study of hostility in persistent auditory hallucinations. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 54, 243–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and Effort. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Mansell, W., Harvey, A., Watkins, E. R. and Shafran, R. (2008). Cognitive behavioural processes across psychological disorders: a review of the utility and validity of the transdiagnostic approach. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1, 181–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moray, N. (1959). Attention in dichotic listening: affective cues and the influence of instructions. Quarterly Journal of experimental Psychology, 11, 56–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, A. P. (2001). The interpretation of intrusions in psychosis: an integrative cognitive approach to hallucinations and delusions. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 29, 257–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nayani, T. H. and David, A. S. (1996). The auditory hallucination: a phenomenological survey. Psychological Medicine, 26, 179–192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, D. A. (1968). Towards a theory of memory and attention. Psychological Review, 75, 522–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, I. and Pickett, J. M. (1964). Intelligibility of excerpts from fluent speech: auditory vs. structural context. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 3, 78–84.Google Scholar
Snyder, S. H. (1973). Amphetamine psychosis: a “model” schizophrenia mediated by catecholamines. American Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 61–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steel, C., Fowler, D. and Holmes, E. A. (2005). Trauma-related intrusions and psychosis: an information processing account. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 33, 139–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verdoux, H., Grindle, C., Sorbara, F. and Tourner, M. (2003). Effects of cannabis and psychosis vulnerability in daily life: an experience sampling test study. Psychological Medicine, 33, 23–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wells, A. and Matthews, G. (1994). Attention and Emotion: a clinical perspective. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C. and Matthews, A. (1988). Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders (2nd ed.) Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.