In the present study, all right-handed participants scored at least 60 or above. This 74-item self-report scale with a

“yes/no” response format measures MDX-010 schizotypy traits and features the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria for a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). All items answered “yes” are scored 1 point. According to Raine (1991), the SPQ has demonstrated high internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.91), test–retest reliability (r = 0.82), and criterion validity (r = 0.68 between the SPQ and SPD scores derived from diagnostic interviews). Before hearing the dichotic pairs, participants listened to and familiarised themselves with both the verbal and emotional characteristics of the 16 word–emotion stimuli. A practice session I-BET-762 research buy then allowed them to gain experience of the task while receiving feedback on whether responses made were correct or incorrect. The dichotic listening experiment followed (Bryden & MacRae, 1988). Participants were presented with a target word or target emotion on screen at the start of a block of 144 trials and were instructed to monitor for that target. The word targets were ‘tower’ and ‘dower’ and the emotion targets were ‘happy’ and ‘angry’. Participants monitored each of these targets for one complete block, thus there were four blocks of 144 trials totalling 576 trials. During

each block the target was present on 50% of the trials; 25% in the right ear and 25% in the left ear. During a trial, participants heard two sounds simultaneously; one in the right ear and one in the left. Following this stimuli presentation, they indicated if they heard the target in either ear by pressing the green (present) or red (absent) keys of the computer’s response pad. The hand that was used to respond and the target presentation order were both counterbalanced. To allow a space between stimulus presentations, a pause of 700 ms was introduced after individuals responded and before the next sound appeared. A reminder of the target was also

presented on the computer screen after every 18 trials. Participants were informed that the aim was to respond Ribonuclease T1 as quickly and accurately as possible. Following completion of the experiment, the SPQ and EHI were administered. The current study had a mixed design with two within-subject variables: Task (focus on word, focus on emotion) and Ear (left ear, right ear) in addition to one between-subjects variable: Schizotypal Personality Group, SPQ (high schizotypal personality, low schizotypal personality). Before conducting the statistical analyses, the average number of hits (i.e., correct detections), false alarms (i.e., identifying a target as present when it was absent), and reaction times for hits were computed for each condition. Hit and false alarm rates were employed to calculate d′; a signal detection measure of sensitivity that controls for participants’ response bias.