Reality monitoring in visual hallucinations
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study into Reality Monitoring in Visual Hallucinations
IRAS ID
162664
Contact name
Charlotte Aynsworth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
The aim of this research is to understand the psychological processes that lead people to experience visual hallucinations (VH): the subjective experience of an event with an absence of an external stimuli.
One explanation of visual hallucinations is that people have a deficit in reality monitoring; people’s ability to distinguish whether a source of information was internally imagined or externally presented.
Reality monitoring is a common explanation of auditory hallucinations, with a wealth of evidence supporting this. However, there has been very little research into VH.
Specifically, this study aims to build on current literature by investigating whether reality monitoring differences contribute to VH, through replicating Brebion et al (2008). (Reference: Brebion, G., Olsen, R.I., Pilowsky, L.S., & David, A.S. (2008).Visual hallucinations in schizophrenia: Confusion between imagination and perception. Neuropsychology, 22(3), 383-389)
A second aim is to see whether RM differences are also demonstrated with more ecologically valid materials of faces, rather than objects.
Finally, this study aims to control for memory and perception differences that could be interfere with reality monitoring.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/1247
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion