Comparing the selective attention among individuals with symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and normal individuals

Cognitive science examines the nature and processes of attention by using different assignments. The purpose of this study was to compare the selective attention among persons with symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and normal individuals.
In this research, 400 female students were randomly selected and completed the computer version of the Millon Questionnaire. Then, based on the criteria for admission, three groups of antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and normal subjects were selected. Consequentlythe Selected Attention Test was performed on all participants and data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance.
Results were shown significant difference in the efficiency of the focus (KL) between obsessive-compulsive personality and normal groups, with lower means for obsessive-compulsive personality group. In relation to the elimination error, the difference between the obsessive-compulsive personality group and the anti-social personality group was significant and obsessive-compulsive personality subjects had a oversimplified elimination error. The difference between obsessive-compulsive personality and normal groups was significant in elimination error and obsessive-compulsive individuals had more elimination errors.
Based on the findings, dysfunction of selective attention was associated with symptoms of personality disorder, investigating the neurological basis of the process of attention and processing of social stimuli in antisocial personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is recommended for future research in this field.