Modulatory effects of psychopathy on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in male offenders with Antisocial Personality Disorder

Pera-Guardiola, Vanessa; Batalla, Iolanda; Bosque, Javier; Kosson, David S.; Pifarré, Josep; Hernández‐Ribas, Rosa; Goldberg, Ximena; Contreras‐Rodríguez, Oren; Menchón, José M.; Soriano‐Mas, Carles; Cardoner, Narcı́s

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2015.12.003

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Specifically, Nestor, Kimble, Berman, and Haycock () reported the strongest positive correlation between psychopathy and intelligence and a high standard error ( r = .47, SE = 0.32, N = 13). For ASPD, we similarly found one study (Pera‐Guardiola et al, ) that reported a negative effect size that was fairly strong with an accompanying high standard error ( r = −.34, SE = 0.32, N = 13). Nonetheless, the exclusion of these outliers did not have an effect on the effect sizes (psychopathy: r = −.07, p = .001; ASPD: r = −.13, p = .001), which is likely due to the small sample sizes of the outlier studies.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Untangling Intelligence, Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Conduct Problems: A Meta–Analytic Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Substantial research has investigated the association between intelligence and psychopathic traits. The findings to date have been inconsistent and have not always considered the multidimensional nature of psychopathic traits. Moreover, there has been a tendency to confuse psychopathy with other closely related, clinically significant disorders. The current study represents a meta‐analysis conducted to evaluate the direction and magnitude of the association of intelligence with global psychopathy, as well as its factors and facets, and related disorders (i.e. antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder). Our analyses revealed a small, significant, negative relationship between intelligence and total psychopathy (r = −.07, p = .001). Analysis of factors and facets found differential associations, including both significant positive (e.g. interpersonal facet) and negative (e.g. affective facet) associations, further affirming that psychopathy is a multidimensional construct. Additionally, intelligence was negatively associated with antisocial personality disorder (r = −.13, p = .001) and conduct disorder (r = −.13, p = .001) but positively with oppositional defiant disorder (r = .06, p = .001). There was significant heterogeneity across studies for most effects, but the results of moderator analyses were inconsistent. Finally, bias analyses did not find significant evidence for publication bias or outsized effects of outliers. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Untangling Intelligence, Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Conduct Problems: A Meta–Analytic Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Using more detailed measures of the different stages of the WCST and related tasks might provide further insight into the relationship between cognitive flexibility and psychopathic traits. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that there have been reports of positive associations between cognitive flexibility and the interpersonal-affective traits of psychopathy ( 44 , 83 , 94 ), which were not found in the current study. The positive association between interpersonal psychopathic traits and cognitive flexibility remains uncertain, and it seems that no firm conclusions can be drawn ( 47 ), indicating a need for further research.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

“…Impairments in cognitive flexibility has been observed in both violent and non-violent offenders ( 55 , 87 ) as well as in offenders with antisocial personality disorder ( 56 ), and thus, at first glance, would seem related to the impulsive-antisocial traits of psychopathy. Still, we and others ( 44 , 88 ) have failed to find such an association. The WCST, upon which the IED test used in the current study is based, is a complex task, requiring both working memory, inhibition, attention, error detection and conflict resolution, and along its different stages activates a large bilateral frontoparietal network ( 89 – 91 ).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 55%

“…We chose to omit participants rather than imputing the data, since we suspected non-random attrition. It should also be noted that participants scored relatively low on the interpersonal facet, compared to previous studies ( 26 , 44 , 45 ), and in general participants demonstrated lower PCL-R total scores than what could be expected in a sample of violent offenders. The low PCL-R scores might be due to the young age of the offenders in the current study (18–25 years), where perhaps many not yet had developed the full-blown characteristics assessed by the PCL-R. Also, cultural differences noted in previous research might contribute to the lower PCL-R scores ( 103 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Examining Associations Between Psychopathic Traits and Executive Functions in Incarcerated Violent Offenders

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Executive functions (EFs) are essential in almost all aspects of daily life and have been robustly related to antisocial behavior. However, the relationship between psychopathy and EFs has remained equivocal. Research investigating lower-level trait dimensions of psychopathy using standardized EF measures could be beneficial in addressing this issue. In this study, we examined associations between four EFs and four dimensions of psychopathic traits (interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, antisocial) using zero-order correlation and a combination of classical and Bayesian statistical methods. Two hundred and fourteen incarcerated male violent offenders were assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and completed tests of cognitive flexibility, spatial working memory, response inhibition, and planning and problem-solving using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Lifestyle psychopathic traits were significantly associated with reduced initial thinking time in a planning and problem-solving task, with a Bayes factor indicating substantial evidence for the observed correlation, and antisocial psychopathic traits showed a significant association with reduced initial thinking time in the same task, although the Bayes factor indicated only anecdotal evidence. Significant associations were also found between affective and antisocial psychopathic traits and less efficient strategic thinking in a spatial working memory task, and between affective, lifestyle and antisocial psychopathic traits and fewer problems solved in a planning and problem-solving task, although these findings were not corroborated by the Bayesian analysis. While the observed effects ranged between small and medium, our study suggests that reduced initial thinking times in planning and problem-solving is robustly associated with higher degrees of lifestyle and antisocial psychopathic traits.

show abstract

“…Recent studies of executive functions within subsets of psychopaths indicate that even unsuccessful psychopaths may not do worse on tasks testing "cool EFs" (non-emotional tasks, often tested by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). One study by Pera-Guardiola et al (2016) indicated that prisoners with lower scores of psychopathy may suffer from EF deficits tested by the WCST (a "cool" task) in comparison with prisoners who score higher on the psychopath diagnostic and those without a psychopathy diagnosis. This study thus seems to indicate that higher scores on the PCL-R don't necessarily indicate higher deficits in "cool" EFs.…”

Section: Cognitive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Psychopaths Legally Insane?

Jefferson

Sifferd

2018

EuJAP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The question of whether psychopaths are criminally and morally responsible has generated significant controversy in the literature. In this paper, we discuss what relevance a psychopathy diagnosis has for criminal responsibility. It has been argued that figuring out whether psychopathy is a mental illness is of fundamental importance, because it is a precondition for psychopaths’ eligibility to be excused via the legal insanity defense. But even if psychopathy counts as a mental illness, this alone is not sufficient to show the insanity defense is applicable; it must also be shown that, as a result of the illness, specific deficits in moral understanding or control are present. In this paper, we show that a diagnosis of psychopathy will generally not indicate that a defendant is eligible for an insanity defense. This is because the group of individuals subsumed under the diagnosis is so heterogeneous that while some psychopaths do show significant impairments in affect and control which may impact on their responsibility, many psychopaths are not incapacitated in a way relevant to responsibility.

show abstract

Modulatory effects of psychopathy on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in male offenders with Antisocial Personality Disorder

Cited by 21 publications

References 40 publications

Untangling Intelligence, Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Conduct Problems: A Meta–Analytic Review

Untangling Intelligence, Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Conduct Problems: A Meta–Analytic Review

Examining Associations Between Psychopathic Traits and Executive Functions in Incarcerated Violent Offenders

Are Psychopaths Legally Insane?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About