Mohr C, Graves R E, Gianotti L R, Pizzagalli D, Brugger P
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2001 Sep;30(5):475-83. doi: 10.1023/a:1010461429079.
An abnormal facilitation of the spreading activation within semantic networks is thought to under-lie schizophrenics' remote associations and referential ideas. In normal subjects, elevated magical ideation (MI) has also been associated with a style of thinking similar to that of schizotypal subjects. We thus wondered whether normal subjects with a higher MI score would judge "loose associations" as being more closely related than do subjects with a lower MI score. In two experiments, we investigated whether judgments of the semantic distance between stimulus words varied as a function of MI. In the first experiment, random word pairs of two word classes, animals and fruits, were presented. Subjects had to judge the semantic distance between word pairs. In the second experiment, sets of three words were presented, consisting of a pair of indirectly related, or unrelated nouns plus a third noun. Subjects had to judge the semantic distance of the third noun to the word pair The results of both experiments showed that higher MI subjects considered unrelated words as more closely associated than did lower MI subjects. We conjecture that for normal subjects high on MI "loose associations" may not be loose after all. We also note that the tendency to link uncommon, nonobvious, percepts may not only be the basis of paranormal and paranoid ideas of reference, but also a prerequisite of creative thinking.
语义网络中传播激活的异常促进被认为是精神分裂症患者远程联想和指涉观念的基础。在正常受试者中，较高的神奇观念（MI）也与类似于分裂型人格受试者的思维方式有关。因此，我们想知道MI得分较高的正常受试者是否会比MI得分较低的受试者更倾向于判断“松散联想”之间的关系更为紧密。在两项实验中，我们研究了刺激词之间语义距离的判断是否会因MI而变化。在第一个实验中，呈现了动物和水果这两个词类的随机词对。受试者必须判断词对之间的语义距离。在第二个实验中，呈现了由一对间接相关或不相关的名词加上第三个名词组成的三个词的集合。受试者必须判断第三个名词与词对之间的语义距离。两项实验的结果均表明，MI较高的受试者比MI较低的受试者认为不相关的词之间的联系更为紧密。我们推测，对于MI较高的正常受试者来说，“松散联想”可能根本就不松散。我们还注意到，将不常见、不明显的感知联系起来的倾向不仅可能是超自然和偏执指涉观念的基础，也是创造性思维的一个先决条件。
