Decision Processes and Obsessional Behaviour

‘I wash until it feels right’

“…This points towards a general obsessional strategy even in situations which are not characterized by strong obsessional fears. Results are consistent with early studies which found that obsessional patients required more trials than psychiatric controls before reaching a decision in a visual discrimination task (Walker, 1967) or a tone discrimination task (Milner, Beech, & Walker, 1971).…”

When doubting begins: Exploring inductive reasoning in obsessive-compulsive disorder

“…Studies measuring decision making typically involve participants choosing whether or not they need more information before drawing a conclusion. So for example, Milner, Beech, and Walker (1971) compared a group of people with and without OCD in their performance on an auditory signal detection task. Participants decided whether they needed additional trials before stating if a faint tone (embedded in white noise) was present or not.…”

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a Disturbance of Security Motivation.

“…Some experimental tests support this hypothesis. For instance, Milner, Beech, and Walker (1971) showed that even though signal detectability and response bias are the same in obsessional and nonobsessional people performing an auditory signal detection task, their performance is different when they are allowed to hear the trial again before rendering judgment as to whether the tone was played. Individuals with obsessional symptoms ask for significantly more repeats of a trial than those without obsessional symptoms, consistent with the prediction that obsessional individuals will demand more information to arrive at a decision than nonobsessional individuals.…”