One hundred forty-one college students completed a computerized test of reality-monitoring deficits and a computerized version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). In the test of reality-monitoring, subjects fixated on a dot, perceived a stimulus to one side, imaged an identical stimulus on the other side and rated its vividness while continuing to image. Then, either the dot became a P and subjects pressed a button on the side of the percept, as quickly as possible, or the dot became an I and subjects pressed a button on the side of the image. Subjects exhibiting above-median scores on the Dissociation/Amnesia factor of the DES took longer to discriminate perception from vivid imagery than from faint imagery, as if they failed to monitor the greater “central innervation” behind more vivid, more percept-like imagery. These results corroborate recent findings that dissociative tendencies in college students, like psychotic tendencies in students, have reality-testing deficiencies at their core.
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