Facial recognition in hypothetically schizotypic college students. The role of generalized poor performance.

This study investigated facial and facial affect recognition abilities among hypothetically schizotypic college men, defined by high scores on the perceptual aberration, magical ideation, and schizotypy scales. Groups were commensurate in age, handedness, and general intelligence. Multiple analyses of variance revealed that high-scoring subjects, relative to control subjects, made more errors on a facial affect recognition task (F = 5.32, p < .05) and on a facial recognition task (F = 8.5, p < .01). Additional multiple analyses of covariance using the face recognition scores as the covariant found no group differences. These results extend similar findings in schizophrenic individuals to hypothetically schizotypic college students, and suggest that both groups exhibit affect recognition deficits that reflect generalized attention and vigilance deficits rather than a specific emotion recognition deficit.