A recent study involving 1,000 online participants examined the relationship between self-reported communication difficulties and various psychopathological symptoms. Participants completed two tasks to assess their language use and associative thinking, alongside questionnaires that measured symptoms of different psychopathologies.
Exploratory factor analysis revealed 11 factors underlying the correlations among 128 questionnaire items. Three of these factors were specifically related to communication difficulties: 'reduced speech,' characterized by challenges in initiating or maintaining conversation; 'disorganized speech,' marked by lengthy or poorly structured responses; and 'eccentricity,' reflecting unusual speech patterns.
Participants with high scores in eccentricity produced more atypical narratives when asked to recount familiar stories, such as Cinderella. This atypicality was not influenced by demographic variables or verbal working memory. Furthermore, the narrative's atypicality increased in the latter half, indicating a drift from the original topic.
Analysis also showed that individuals with high eccentricity exhibited reduced semantic coherence in their narratives, particularly in smaller semantic expressions. This suggests a diminished organization of thoughts at both global and local levels.
The study further explored the mechanisms behind these communication difficulties by assessing free associations to colors rather than words. Results indicated that those with high eccentricity reported more infrequent and idiosyncratic associations, alongside a slight delay in response times.
A model was developed to understand the dynamics of associative thinking and expression regulation, indicating that individuals with high eccentricity have less constrained associative maps and are less likely to reject atypical associations. A follow-up experiment confirmed these findings, showing consistent results across different contexts.
Additionally, the study investigated whether other psychiatric dimensions also exhibit atypical language use. Only elevated eccentricity was found to predict atypical narratives or associations, while a dimension of 'suspiciousness' was linked to covert thought disorganization.
Overall, the findings suggest that self-reported communication difficulties, particularly in individuals with high eccentricity, reflect a broader pattern of atypical and less-constrained associative thinking.