The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Reality testing and auditory hallucinations: A signal detection analysis
Abstract
The hypothesis that hallucinators are deficient in the metacognitive skill of reality testing was tested using the methodology of signal detection theory. In Expt 1 undergraduate subjects scoring high or low on a scale measuring predisposition to hallucination were tested on an auditory signal detection task. High scorers on the scale were found to differ from low scorers on a measure of perceptual bias but not on a measure of sensitivity. In Expt 2 a similar methodology was used with hallucinating and non-hallucinating schizophrenic patients, with similar results. These results support the hypothesis that hallucinators or subjects highly disposed towards hallucination are deficient in reality testing and are therefore prone to identify imaginary events as real.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“There is evidence that people prone to hallucinations experience a perceptual bias which increases the influence of prior (top-down) information over bottom-up sensory input (“over-weighted priors”). 26 , 31 , 32”
From Towards an Integrative Account of Potential Mechanisms Mediating the Path From Sleep Dysfunction to Hallucinations (2025) · cites this paper as [31]
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 301–369 of 369
Pathways to psychological treatments for psychosis
Kuipers, E. (2008) · Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.mppsy.2008.08.004 · Cited by 1
Deese, J. (1986) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00046847 · Cited by 1
Amir, N., Malik, K., & Evawani, S. (2018) · Journal of Physics Conference Series · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1073/2/022026 · Cited by 1
“Hallucinations are thought to derive from impaired metacognitive process functions assigned to discriminate between outside and inside sources [4,5], as well as an information processing deficit [6].”
BackgroundLaunay–Slade Hallucination Scale-Extended: simplifying its interpretation
Fernández, D., Liu, I., Preti, A., Haro, J. M., & Siddi, S. (2022) · Psychosis · doi:10.1080/17522439.2021.1983011 · Cited by 1
“…explore the occurrence of hallucination like-experiences (HLEs) in the clinical and general population from different cultures (Aleman et al., 2001; Bentall & Slade, 1985; Castiajo & Pinheiro, 2017; Larøi et al., 2004; Launay & Slade, 1981; De Leede-Smith et al., 2016; Pinheiro et al., 2019;…”
BackgroundReed, P. (2022) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.111898 · Cited by 1
Elliott, M. A., Porter, G., & Nakajima, Y. (2023) · Progress in brain research · doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2023.04.002 · Cited by 1
Investigating the lateralisation of experimentally induced auditory verbal hallucinations
Mak, O., Couth, S., Plack, C. J., Kotz, S. A., & Yao, B. (2023) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1193402 · Cited by 1
“This pattern of results was also found in individuals with schizophrenia with and without AVHs - the former showed more liberal responding (similar to neurotypicals highly prone to hallucinations) - while perceptual sensitivity was the same across patient groups (Bentall and Slade, 1985).”
BackgroundResultGhieh, R., Krężołek, M., & Gawęda, Ł. (2024) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2024.01.015 · Cited by 1
Smith, E. S., Michalski, S., Knauth, K., Tuzsus, D., Theis, H., van Eimeren, T., & Peters, J. (2024) · eNeuro · doi:10.1523/eneuro.0465-23.2024 · Cited by 1
“For the perceptual domain, studies assessing the ability to discriminate signals and noise in controls and individuals with hallucinations and schizophrenia yielded mixed results (Bentall and Slade, 1985; Ishigaki and Tanno, 1999; Krummenacher et al., 2010).”
Randell, J., Goyal, M., Saunders, J., et al. (2012) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.5127/jep.021711 · Cited by 1
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations
Diederen, K. M. J., & Sommer, I. E. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0959-5_9 · Cited by 2
Adler, M. (1997) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · doi:10.1177/014107689709000109 · Cited by 1
Harvey, P. D. (1987) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00023931 · Cited by 1
“He is in agreement with Bentall and Slade (1985) in suggesting that the sensory properties of VHs are not distinct from ordinary verbal imagery.”
Hallucinations and contextually generated interpretations
Spaños, N. P. (1986) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00046999 · Cited by 1
Vercammen, A. (2009) · University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) · Cited by 1
Cognitive processing associated with hallucinations for At Risk Mental State
Leicester, S. (2013) · Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) · Cited by 1
Clinical Pathologies and Unusual Experiences
Bentall, R. P. (2017) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119132363.ch11 · Cited by 1
Self-citationSmith, E. S., Michalski, S., Knauth, K., et al. (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2023.10.24.563723 · Cited by 1
(2000) · Time to knit · doi:10.1016/s0246-1072(19)30111-7 · Cited by 1
Bradbury, D. A. (2026) · e-space (Manchester Metropolitan University) · doi:10.83056/mmu.32434503 · Cited by 1
Reactive psychosis in a first-episode psychosis population
Krstev, H. (2011) · Victoria University Research Repository (Victoria University) · Cited by 1
Latent inhibition and psychometrically defined schizotypy : an experimental investigation.
Tsakanikos, E. (2003) · CogPrints (University of Southampton)
Parra, A. E., & Luis Espinoza, P. (2014) · Revista de Investigación en Psicología · doi:10.15381/rinvp.v12i2.3760
Stringer, D. M. (2012) · doi:10.17077/etd.6zvtstc3
Bak, M., Drukker, M., van Os, J., & Delespau, P. (2008) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/s0920-9964(08)70698-4
Zheng, Z., Johnsrude, I. S., & Munhall, K. G. (2007) · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · doi:10.1121/1.4781746
“Such hallucinations may result from a lack of awareness of self-generated sounds, and misattribution of sound sources (Bentall and Slade, 1985; Baker and Morrison, 1998).”
BackgroundCognitive and perceptual mechanisms in clinical and non-clinical auditory hallucinations
Chhabra, S. (2012) · UWA Profiles and Research Repository (University of Western Australia)
Parra, A. E., & Maschi, G. (2017) · Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría · doi:10.1016/j.rcp.2017.01.010
Multidimensional factor structure of unusual experiences: New measures of positive schizotypy
Charabi, M., Kravariti, E., Eysenck, M. W., & Tsakanikos, E. (2019) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.039
Bell, I. (2019) · Minerva Access (University of Melbourne)
Geng, H. (2020) · University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) · doi:10.33612/diss.131330743
Cognitive Mapping Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Critical Overview
Malla, A. A., & Bhat, N. M. (2015) · International Journal of Indian Psychology · doi:10.25215/0202.022
The Perception of Biological Sound: A Test of the Social Deafferentation Hypothesis
Wagener, M. A. (2015)
Other Times I Can Barely See: The Effects of Hallucinogens on Vision and Attention
Baggott, M. J. (2010) · eScholarship (California Digital Library)
Childhood imaginary companion and schizotypy in adolescents and adultsPreprint
Zarei, T., Pourshahbaz, A., & Poshtmashhadi, M. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/vmp76
Parra, A. E., & Maschi, G. (2018) · Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría (English ed ) · doi:10.1016/j.rcpeng.2018.03.003
Inhibition, anxiety and the development of auditory hallucinations
Paulik, G. (2008) · UWA Profiles and Research Repository (University of Western Australia)
(2007) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-37254-7_12
Psychopathologie et neurosciences
Campanella, S., & Streel, E. (2008) · Neurosciences & cognition. Série LMD · doi:10.3917/dbu.campa.2008.01.0315
Pathways to psychological treatments for psychosis
Kuipers, E. (2005) · Psychiatry · doi:10.1383/psyt.2005.4.11.40
Alderson‐Day, B., Moffatt, J. A., Lima, C. F., Krishnan, S., Fernyhough, C., Scott, S. K., Denton, S., Leong, Y. T., Oncel, A. D., Wu, Y.-L., et al. (2021) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/db5y8
Zheng, Y., Li, Q., Gong, B., Xia, Y., Lu, X., Liu, Y., Wu, H., She, S., & Wu, C. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4194397
Lhotka, M., Ischebeck, A. K., Helmlinger, B., et al. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/z76js
Rouy, M., Pereira, M., Saliou, P., Sanchez, R., Mardi, W. E., Sebban, H., Baqué, E., Dezier, C., Porte, P., Micaux, J., et al. (2023) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2023.03.28.23287851
Katsigianni, S. (2023) · Journal of European Psychology Students · doi:10.59477/jeps.569
“…Functioning Scale-Short Form (BDEFS-SF; Barkley, 2011), the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI; Schraw & Dennison, 1994), the 21-Item Delusions Inventory (PDI-21; Peters et al., 2004), and the Launey-Slade Hallucination Scale-Revised (LSHS-R; Bentall & Slade, 1985; Launay & Slade, 1981).”
MethodMedcalf-Bell, R., Barkus, E., & Moseley, P. (2024) · The Cognitive Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.53841/bpscog.2024.1.9.59
Refining Mechanistic Models of Hallucinations for Enhanced TranslatabilityPreprint
Buck, J., Iigaya, K., & Horga, G. (2024) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/jpzfw
Reischies, F. M. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-68299-9_12
(2000) · Time to knit · doi:10.1016/s0246-1072(13)60726-9
Reischies, F. M. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-70293-2_12
Song-making in a group (SING): a longitudinal study for people experiencing psychosis
Greco, D. L., Castiello, S., Camilo, S., Freeland, C. M., Pavlo, A. J., Bien, C., Nachemson, J., Lubinski, C., Christoferson, A., Kenney, J. G., et al. (2026) · Psychosis · doi:10.1080/17522439.2026.2634654
Hallucinations at the interface of philosophy and the empirical sciences
Dolcini, N. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1699432
Neuroimaging studies of auditory verbal hallucinations
McGuire, P. K. (2004) · Steinkopff eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-7985-1953-4_13
I’m whispering a white Christmas: masking relations in hallucinatory speech
Scott, M., & Leung, T. T.-C. (2025) · Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/langcog.2025.10030
“The other approach suggests that voice hearing is the result of a signal detection bias in which the hearer ’ s own expectations lead to the misinter-pretation of an external signal (e.g., Alganami et al., 2017; Bentall & Slade, 1985).”
Mysko, K., Gear, E. Q., & Ellett, L. (2026) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291725103061
“Hallucinations were investigated in six of the studies, four of which used the Launay Slade Hallucination Scale-Revised (Bentall & Slade, 1985),andtwousedthe RevisedHallucinationScale (Morrison, Wells, &Nothard, 2002).”
Althuwaini, H., Meyer, G., Ward, R., & Meyer, H. (2026) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0341864
“The scale demonstrates a multi-dimensional approach in the tendency to hallucinations and is widely used in research across various populations, including both healthy individuals [16,18–20] and clinical groups, such as those with Alzheimer’s disease [21] and schizophrenia [20,22,23].”
Castiello, S., Barch, D. M., Erickson, M. A., Boudewyn, M. A., Carter, C., Frank, M. J., Gold, J. M., MacDonald, A. W., Luck, S. J., Kenny, J., et al. (2025) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbaf248
“3 Subsequent work showed that people with AVHs are more susceptible to conditioning, more readily learning to perceive a sound that is not present after it has been paired with another stimulus.”
Психология паранормального опыта: убеждения, переживания и репрезентации в современной РоссииPreprint
ванХааске, Л. (2026) · doi:10.24108/preprints-3115293
Pokorny, V., Williams, T., Pratt, D., Kenney, J. G., Ellman, L. M., Strauss, G. P., Walker, E. F., Woods, S. W., Powers, A. R., Corlett, P. R., et al. (2026) · Schizophrenia Bulletin Open · doi:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgag021 · Cited by 1
“6 , 15 , 17 – 19 Third, we hypothesized that reporting more faces and speech would be uniquely related to perceptually-driven positive symptoms such as hallucinations and percep - tual distortions as compared to other positive symptoms such as delusions, unusual thought content and disorganized…”
Problems with Hallucinations in Individuals Living with Serious Mental Illness
McKeegan, G. F. (2026) · Evidence-based practices in behavioral health · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-18372-9_7
Hallucinations and auditory-verbal signal detection studies: A meta-analytic review
Medcalf-Bell, R., Moseley, P., & Barkus, E. (2026) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291726105339
“While the included nonclinical studies used a version of the Launay – Slade hallucination scale (LSHS; Bentall & Slade, 1985b; Launay & Slade, 1981; Morrison et al., 2000; n = 8); the Oxford – Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-Life; Mason et al., 1995; n = 1); or the Cardiff…”
InfluentialHitting and missing on consciousness
Nakamura, T., Michel, M., & Lau, H. C. (2026) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/pcn.70136
Talking about hearing voices : a narrative analysis of experience
O’Halloran, L. (2014) · Figshare
Metadata
- Authors
- Bentall, R. P., & Slade, P. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bentall, R. P.
- ORCID
- Bentall, R. P.
- Venue
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1985-09
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 159-169
- ISSN
- 0144-6657 (ISSN-L)
- 2044-8260
- OpenAlex
- W1987901560
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 8.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Aberystwyth University
- Bangor University
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hallucinations in medical conditions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
- Keywords
- reality testing, auditory hallucinations, signal detection theory, metacognition, perceptual bias, sensitivity, schizophrenia, hallucination proneness
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Auditory Perception, Decision Making, Ego, Hallucinations, Humans, Imagination, Male, Reality Testing, Schizophrenic Psychology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
