Auditory Imagery and Hallucinations

Theories of hallucination and research on the formal properties of imagery suggest that vividness and controllability of volitional auditory imagery are important variables in the relationship between imagery and hallucination. A sample of 20 hallucinating schizophrenics, 20 nonhallucinating schizophrenics, and 20 medical patients were given scales measuring vividness of volitional auditory imagery, controllability of volitional auditory imagery, and spontaneous imagery in daydreaming. Subjects were 60 male veterans, tested within 3 weeks of admission to the hospital. The Vividness of Auditory Imagery Scale, based on the Betts Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery and Mark's Vividness of Visual Imagery Scale, includes items in three content areas: inanimate, neutral interpersonal, and emotional interpersonal. The first item of the scale is the item used in a previous study of vividness of imagery and hallucinations (Mintz, S., and Alpert, M. Imagery vividness, reality testing, and schizophrenic hallucinations. J. Abnorm. Psychol., 79: 310-316, 1972). No significant differences in vividness were found between hallucinating schizophrenics, nonhallucinating schizophrenics, and medical patients. However, hallucinating schizophrenics reported significantly lower vividness scores for the emotional interpersonal items. These findings do not support previous theoretical and experimental associations of vivid volitional imagery with hallucination. The Controllability of Auditory Imagery Scale is based on the Gordon Test of Imagery Control and contains 12 items, half in the neutral interpersonal category, and half in the emotional interpersonal category. No significant differences were found between groups in the neutral interpersonal category. However, on emotional interpersonal items, hallucinating schizophrenics had significantly decreased controllability relative to nonhallucinating schizophrenics and medical patients. Measures of spontaneous imagery in daydreams were obtained with the Daydreaming Frequency, Hallucinatory-Vividness in Daydreams, and Auditory Imagery in Daydreams subscales of the Singer and Antrobus Imaginal Processes Inventory. No significant differences between groups on these variables were found. In addition, these measures of spontaneous imagery were not found to correlate significantly with the measures of volitional imagery. Additional measures of effort and anxiety were constructed to investigate their effect on vividness scores. The only significant finding was the association of increased anxiety with decreased vividness.