Cognitive vulnerability to auditory hallucination. Impaired perception of meaning.

Forty-four psychiatric patients were separated into four groups on the basis of presence/absence of hallucinations and reactive/process status. Reactive hallucinators were found to be singularly impaired in two aspects of cognitive processing: (1) tolerance of ambiguity; and (2) availability of alternative meanings. The perceptual errors produced by premature judgment and limited consideration of alternative meanings for misperceptions are discussed as factors predisposing to auditory hallucination.