Philip J Corr

City, University of London · Department of Psychology

This study highlights psychometric properties and evidence of construct validity on parcel-level for questionnaires on the original and revised reinforcement sensitivity theory. Our data (N = 1,076) suggest good to very good psychometric properties and moderate to excellent internal consistencies. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models suggest a...

Gray’s theory of personality postulates that fear and anxiety are distinct emotional systems with only the latter being sensitive to anxiolytic drugs. His work was mainly based on animal research, and translational studies validating his theory are scarce. Previous work in humans showed an influence of the benzodiazepine lorazepam on both systems,...

Background: Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with major depression but differ in their symptom profiles and pharmacological responses. Threat-sensitivity may explain such differences, yet research on its relationship to specific disorders is lacking. Methods: One-hundred patients (71 women) and 35 healthy controls (23 women) were recruited....

As demonstrated by neuroimaging data, the human brain contains systems that control responses to threat. The revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of personality predicts that individual differences in the reactivity of these brain systems produce anxiety and fear-related personality traits. Here we discuss some of the challenges in testing this...

Band power linked to lower and upper alpha (i.e. 8–10 Hz; 10–12 Hz) and lower and upper beta (i.e. 12–20 Hz; 20–30 Hz) were examined during response related stages, including anticipation, response execution (RE), response inhibition (RI) and post response recovery (PRR). Group and individual data from 34 participants were considered. The participa...

Most cognitive domains show only minimal improvement following typical or atypical antipsychotic treatments in schizophrenia, and some may even worsen. One domain that may worsen is procedural learning, an implicit memory function relying mainly on the integrity of the fronto-striatal system. We investigated whether switching to atypical antipsycho...

A failure to inhibit punished responses is central to problematic gambling. We used a computerised card playing game to determine if this failure can be ameliorated by imposing a delay between feedback from the previous trial and the opportunity to play the next card. We compared two experimental conditions: No pause (Standard task) and a 5-s pause...

In a sample of normal volunteers, response perseveration (RP) on a computerised gambling task, the card perseveration task, was examined under two conditions: No pause (Standard task) and a 5-s pause (Pause task) following feedback from previous bet. Behavioural outcomes comprised number of cards played (and cash won/lost) and latency of response....

Typically, human decision making is emotionally "hot" and does not conform to "cold" classical probability (CP) theory. As quantum probability (QP) theory emphasises order, context, superimposition states, and nonlinear dynamic effects, one of its major strengths may be its power to unify formal modeling and realistic psychological theory (e.g., in...

Previous evidence shows a reliable association between psychosis-prone (especially schizotypal) personality traits and performance on dopamine (DA)-sensitive tasks (e.g., prepulse inhibition and antisaccade). Here, we used blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI and an established procedural learning (PL) task to examine the dopaminergic basis of...

Clinically effective drugs against human anxiety and fear systematically alter the innate defensive behavior of rodents, suggesting that in humans these emotions reflect defensive adaptations. Compelling experimental human evidence for this theory is yet to be obtained. We report the clearest test to date by investigating the effects of 1 and 2 mg...

Individuals differ in their support for social change. We argue that examinations of inequality and change would benefit from consideration of underlying personality processes. New data suggest that Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation, indicators of support for inequality, may be motivated by biologically driven personality...

Many personality theories link specific traits to the sensitivities of the neural systems that control approach and avoidance. But there is no consensus on the nature of these systems. Here we combine recent advances in economics and neuroscience to provide a more solid foundation for a neuroscience of approach/avoidance personality. We propose a t...

Rationale: An emerging literature associates increased dopaminergic neurotransmission with altered brain response to aversive stimuli in humans. The direction of the effect of dopamine on aversive motivation, however, remains unclear, with some studies reporting increased and others decreased amygdala activation to aversive stimuli following the a...

Previous research has revealed that EEG theta oscillations are affected during goal conflict processing. This is consistent with the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) theory of anxiety (Gray & McNaughton, 2000). However, studies have not attempted to relate these BIS-related theta effects to BIS personality measures. Confirmation of such an assoc...

In a student sample, we examined two major issues in relation to primary/secondary subtypes of psychopathy and the reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality: the roles played by (a) fear (related to the fight-flight-freeze system, FFFS) and anxiety (related to the behavioural inhibition system, BIS), and (b) different aspects of the behaviour...

It is argued that the generality of strong reciprocity theory (SRT) is limited by the existence of anonymous spontaneous cooperation, maintained in the absence of punishment, despite free-riding. We highlight how individual differences, status, sex, and the legitimacy of non-cooperation need to be examined to increase the internal and ecological va...

Relationships between C.R. Cloninger’s temperament and character dimensions and the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms of inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) were examined in 231 adults from the general population. Regression analyses that predicated overall ADHD, IA and HI by the seven temperament/character di...

Anxiety and fear are often confounded in discussions of human emotions. However, studies of rodent defensive reactions under naturalistic conditions suggest anxiety is functionally distinct from fear. Unambiguous threats, such as predators, elicit flight from rodents (if an escape-route is available), whereas ambiguous threats (e.g., the odor of a...

In the standard one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma game, participants often choose to cooperate, when the optimal strategy is to defect. This puzzling finding has attracted considerable interest both in terms of possible computational frameworks for modeling human judgment, but also regarding the more general debate of human altruism. In this research, we...

Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory postulates personality factors of ‘reward sensitivity’ and ‘punishment sensitivity’ linked to neural systems that control approach and avoidance, respectively. In contrast, behavioural economics distinguishes gain (‘reward’) and loss (‘punishment’) valuation systems that are orthogonal to approach/avoidance behaviou...

We sketch a framework for exploring the overlap between, and integration of, personality/temperament/character traits and economics. This integrative framework incorporates the study of the evolution and biology of personality, and an investment model from economics. We offer models of the development of traits and the expression of behavior associ...

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms of inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) were examined in relation to three personality instruments: Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ); the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales; and the Multidimensiona...

The revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST) of personality (Gray & McNaughton, 2000) maintains that trait individual differences in the operation of defensive systems relate to facets of human personality, most notably anxiety and fear. We investigated this theory in 2 separate studies (total N=270) using a threat scenario research strategy...

a b s t r a c t The influence of trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI) on work–family conflict is important for individual difference effects in regulating emotion in work–family life. Trait EI's influence on perceptions of work interfering with family (WIF) life, and family life interfering with work (FIW) performance, is of special relevance an...

a b s t r a c t The Mini-IPIP personality scale is a recently developed short measure of the five-factor model personality traits, derived from items in the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg, 1999). The aim in this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Mini-IPIP using factor analysis. 415 male and 1066 female participa...

Individual differences in cognition are important for both theories of cognition and for theories of differential psychology. Furthermore, this topic is important for the unification and future development of psychology that runs the risk of fragmenting into a disparate number of loosely connected disciplines with no central theoretical core. The a...

Molecular Psychiatry publishes work aimed at elucidating biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and their treatment

An experiment examining the effects of reinforcement and personality on a procedural learning task tested H. J. Eysenck’s (1968, 1979) incubation theory of the development of fear, relating to a “reminiscence” effect during a rest pause. Eysenck’s arousal-based personality predictions for enhanced learning were contrasted with J. A. Gray’s reinforc...

Drugs that are clinically effective against generalized anxiety disorder preferentially alter rodent risk assessment behavior, whereas drugs that are clinically effective against panic disorder preferentially alter rodent flight behavior. The theoretical principle of "defensive direction" explains the pattern of associations between emotion and def...

We draw a distinction between defensive and predatory forms of aggression, and how these forms relate to basic neuropsychological systems, especially the Fight-Flight-Freeze-System (FFFS; putatively related to defensive aggression), and the Behavioural Approach System (BAS; putatively related to predatory aggression). These systems may help further...

We report, for the first time in the literature, a cognitive-behavioural training waiting-list controlled study that changed employees’ attributional style, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and improved a number of individual differences measures of well-being. One hundred and sixty-six financial services sales agents (98% male, mean age 3...

Personality psychology is a rapidly maturing science making important advances on both conceptual and methodological fronts. The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology offers a one-stop source for the most up-to-date scientific personality psychology. It provides a summary of cutting-edge personality research in all its forms, from DNA to pol...

EEG coherence and EEG power response were recorded as 63 participants engaged in one of three experimental conditions: 'personal rumination', 'nominal rumination', and 'baseline counting'. The rumination conditions were separated by a neutral (counting) task to eliminate neural carry-over effects. For personal rumination, participants spent 2 min r...

One of the major neuropsychological models of personality, developed by world-renowned psychologist Professor Jeffrey Gray, is based upon individual differences in reactions to punishing and rewarding stimuli. This biological theory of personality - now widely known as ‘Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory’ (RST) - has had a major influence on motivati...

The association between psychoticism (asocial-schizotypy) and cigarette smoking appears to be well established in the literature. However, findings from research examining the relationship between smoking and positive-schizotypy is less consistent, with some studies reporting higher positive-schizotypy in smokers, and other studies reporting no dif...

Neuropsychological function-brain structure relationships may differ as a function of illness stage because of progressive brain matter loss through the course of schizophrenia. In this study, we tested whether neuropsychological function-brain structure relationships differed as a function of illness stage. In addition, we tested whether these rel...

The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) of Personality is a theoretical account of the neural and psychological processes underlying the major dimensions of personality. The first section of this introductory chapter traces the development of RST, from its official birth in 1970, through to Gray's highly influential 1982 The Neuropsychology...

Any discussion of the development of psychology over the past 50 years would be incomplete without consideration of the important and wide-ranging work of the late Professor Hans Eysenck (1916-1997). This is nowhere more apparent than in the area of personality psychology; however, it is also apparent at the interface of personality and psychology,...

Recent revisions to the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality have highlighted the distinction between the emotions of fear and anxiety. These revisions have substantial implications for self-report measurement; in particular, they raise the question of whether separate traits of fear and anxiety exist and, if so, their interrelatio...

The Gray and McNaughton (2000) theory draws on a wide range of animal data to hypothesize that the emotions of fear and anxiety are separable. The authors tested their hypothesis in two studies. The first study examined associations between scores on questionnaire measures of fear, anxiety, and neuroticism; correlational analysis revealed that fear...

Psychophysiological approaches to personality have made significant progress in recent years, partly as a spin-off of technological innovation (e.g., functional neuroimaging) and partly as a result of an emerging theoretical consensus regarding the structure and biology of basic processes. In this field, Jeffrey Gray's influential psychophysiologic...

While the changes in the volume of the temporal lobe and its sub-regions over the course of illness have been studied in patients with schizophrenia, few studies have examined changes in the frontal lobe between the first episode and the chronic stage. In this study, we focussed on the effect of illness stage and duration of illness on the volume o...

'Every work of art is an uncommitted crime' Adorno (1951). Cited in Julius (2002). Given the putative relationship between creativity and schizotypy/psychoticism, the current study set out to investigate differences in scores on a range of personality and creativity measures between visual artists and non-artists. Results found that the visual arti...

Gray and McNaughton [Gray JA, McNaughton N. The neuropsychology of anxiety. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000] predict that fear is associated with orientation away from threat whereas anxiety is associated with orientation towards threat; this first dimension of 'defensive direction' is independent of a second dimension of 'defensive intensity...

The present study provides the first direct molecular genetics support for Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST), which is one of the most influential biologically oriented personality theories. It was investigated whether the DRD2 TaqIA and the COMT polymorphisms were related to the dimensions of Gray's personality theory, as measured by t...

The current study set out to investigate the relationship between creativity, multi-dimensional schizotypy and personality more generally. This was achieved by analysing scores on a range of personality scales and measures of creativity, where it was found that the creativity measures were more closely related to asocial-schizotypy than positive-sc...

The combined effects of cognitive ability and neuroticism on performance in military assessment centres were investigated in two separate samples. We hypothesized that individuals with a “stress intolerant” profile of low ability and high neuroticism would perform worst. In Naval (N=607) and Army (N=62) samples this hypothesis was supported: perfor...

This paper describes a study carried out to investigate the relationship between incidental learning and multi-dimensional schizotypy as measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE; Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995). Whilst Jones, Gray, and Hemsley (1992) found incidental recall to be positively correlated with th...

Prepulse inhibition and the suppression of reflexive saccades on the antisaccade task are thought to tap inhibitory function. Reports of a lack of association between these measures suggest that they reflect different facets of inhibition. This study aimed to reexamine this relationship in a large sample and investigate the association of prepulse...

G. MacDonald and M. R. Leary hypothesized that physical pain and social exclusion share many affective features in common. In this comment, the author discusses the implications of J. A. Gray and N. McNaughton's (2000) hierarchical defense system model, which MacDonald and Leary used in the development of their theoretical claims. Issues are discus...

We investigated the relationships of anti- and prosaccades with psychometric schizotypy. One aim was to estimate the role of negative emotionality and general psychopathology (i.e. neuroticism) in this relationship. 115 non-clinical volunteers underwent infrared oculographic assessment of antisaccades and prosaccades. Schizotypy was assessed with t...

We explored the association between the tendency to worry (also known as trait anxiety) and workplace performance. We hypothesized that worrying would correlate positively with workplace performance, basing our hypothesis on the idea that, far from being a disorder, anxiety is an important component of motivated cognition, essential for efficient f...

The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of Gray scale ultrasonography, magnetic resonance (MRI) and colour flow Doppler imaging in the diagnosis of morbidly adherent placenta praevia. We collected prospectively 30 cases of placenta praevia diagnosed by Gray scale ultrasound, colour flow Doppler and MRI. Delivery by...

The authors investigated the structural brain correlates of antisaccade performance. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the volumes of the prefrontal, premotor, sensorimotor, and occipitoparietal cortices as well as the caudate, thalamus, cerebellar vermis, and cerebrum in 20 first-episode psychosis patients and 18 healthy comparison su...

We present in this paper a picture of the neural systems controlling defense that updates and simplifies Gray's "Neuropsychology of Anxiety". It is based on two behavioural dimensions: 'defensive distance' as defined by the Blanchards and 'defensive direction'. Defensive direction is a categorical dimension with avoidance of threat corresponding to...

A fully fledged neuroscience of personality is beginning to emerge, shaped and guided in large measure by the seminal work of Jeffrey A. Gray over a period of 40 years. In this Festschrift, I trace the theoretical development of Gray's approach--now known as Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST)--out of the Eysenckian tradition to its most recent...

Smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) and antisaccade deficits have been proposed as endophenotypes in the search for schizophrenia genes. We assessed these measures in 24 schizophrenia patients, 24 of their healthy siblings, and 24 healthy controls closely matched to the siblings. Between-group differences were assessed using a random effects regress...

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) has become a major experimental paradigm in the study of psychiatric disorders. In this study, a potential confound in measurement and interpretation of PPI, namely startle reactions to so-called "nonstartling" prepulses, was examined. Prepulses of 80, 85, and 90 dB(A) were presented on their own or followed by a pulse of...

Smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) and antisaccade deficits are observed in the schizophrenia spectrum and have been used to study the pathophysiology as well as the genetic basis of this condition. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine has been implicated in a number of cognitive processes thought to underlie SPEM and antisaccade performance. This st...

The present study investigated the reliability and susceptibility to practice effects of oculomotor tasks. Smooth pursuit, fixation, antisaccade, and prosaccade tasks were administered to 31 healthy participants to assess internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and within-session practice effects. Twenty-one of these participants were retested afte...

Procedural learning (PL) is a type of rule-based learning in which performance facilitation occurs with practice on task without the need for conscious awareness. Schizophrenic patients have often (though not invariably) been found to show impaired PL. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a blocked, periodic sequence-lea...

This study used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate associations between brain structure and saccadic eye movements. Seventeen healthy subjects underwent structural MRI and infra-red oculographic assessment of a reflexive saccade task. Volumes of prefrontal, premotor, and occipitoparietal cortex, caudate, thalamus, and cerebe...

This theoretical note highlights the potential importance of considering reward expectancies in the context of individual differences in reward sensitivity. Based on a theoretical analysis of J. A. Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality, and consistent with the general principles of RST, it is hypothesized that the empirical r...

Examined the utility of E. A. Locke's (1976) moderated model of facet satisfaction for the prediction of organizationally important global measures of job satisfaction. A large dataset from 2 groups of workers at a large military organization allowed testing over different time periods (quarterly between 1988-1993) and across a broad range of satis...

The acoustic startle reflex (ASR) is modulated by a number of experimental factors, the most important of which in the field of psychopathology is weak prestimulation: The ASR is reliably reduced if preceded briefly by a weaker stimulus (i. e., the prepulse), an effect known as prepulse inhibition (PPI). PPI is thought to reflect centrally-mediated...

To determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of bronchial artery embolisation (BAE) in the treatment of major and massive haemoptysis in HIV-positive and negative patients with pulmonary inflammatory disease. A retrospective review of patients admitted over a period of 24 months to Wentworth Hospital with major haemoptysis treated using BAE. Ei...

Forty-seven patients with cervical spine trauma were evaluated prospectively with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography (MRA) to determine the incidence of vertebral artery injury. Twelve patients (25%) had vertebral artery injuries (one bilateral), and occlusion was identified in nine patients and dissection in four. The vertebral arter...

We report a child with known trisomy 21 who presented with a stroke. Angiographic evaluation demonstrated unilateral intracerebral arterial occlusions of the A1 and M1 segments of the anterior and middle cerebral arteries. The hypothesis of segmental arterial vulnerability is reviewed in an attempt to explain these findings.

Performance on a putative psychophysical measure of information processing related to intelligence (Vickers' 1995 Frequency Accrual Speed Test, FAST) was assessed in relation to two psychometric measures of intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Mill Hill vocabulary test). Participants (N = 57) completed the Eysenck Personality...

We explored individual differences in males' and females' perceptions of potentially sexually harassing male behaviours in two studies, using a questionnaire design. In the first study, based on perceptions of an undergraduate population, principal components analysis supported the hypothesis of two independent dimensions: unwanted sexual attention...

An individual’s attributional style, the characteristic way of explaining the causes of events, is related to motivational, performance and affective reactions. In the occupational field, an optimistic attributional style (i.e internal, stable and global attributions for good events and external, unstable and specific attributions for bad events) h...

In their comparative review of H. J. Eysenck’s arousal and J. A. Gray’s reinforcement theories of personality, Matthews and Gilliland [(1999) Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 583–626] concluded that “Cognitive constructs may be more appropriate than biological ones for explaining the majority of behaviours, so that explanations of the ki...

Vertebral hydatidosis is a relatively silent and slowly progressive disease with a latent period of many years. The prognosis for neurologic recovery in hydatid disease of the spine generally is regarded as poor and posterior surgical decompression is associated with a high recurrence rate. Reported here are the results after a long-term followup o...

Individual differences in self-reported mood following either 5 mg or 10 mg d-amphetamine challenge were examined in order to test the modifying role of three factors of personality, viz., the Eysencks' psychoticism, Cloninger's novelty seeking, and Depue and Collins' extraversion. In a double-blind study, mood measures (energetic arousal, tense ar...

Latent inhibition (LI) refers to a retardation of learning about the consequences of a stimulus when that stimulus has been passively presented a number of times without reinforcement. Acute positive-symptom schizophrenics, normal volunteers who score high on questionnaire measures of schizotypy and non-patients or animals treated with dopamine ago...

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of colour flow Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing inferior vena caval (IVC) extension of tumour thrombus in patients with Wilms' tumour. Over a 3-year period from June 1994 to June 1997, 74 patients with Wilms' tumour were referred to our institution. In this retrospective study we reviewed the preoperative colour fl...

Spinal MR has an increasingly important role in the assessment of spinal trauma. The ability to visualise clearly the spinal cord, nerve roots, ligaments, intervertebral discs and adjacent vascular structures allow a more accurate assessment of the extent of injury, and necessity for further management and provide a prognosis for recovery.

I focus on a number of issues arising from Depue & Collins's target article that require further consideration: (1) data that fail to confirm extraversion effects in positive incentive experiments; (2) the role of personality factors, other than extraversion, in dopamine agonism on positive mood states; (3) the role of extraversion in nonspeci...

In a recent paper C. L. Rusting and R. J. Larsen (see record 1997-04006-002) studied the relationship between positive/negative mood induction and personality traits (extraversion, E; neuroticism, N). They showed that positive mood induction was positively correlated with E and negative mood induction was positively correlated with N and negativel...

To compare 201thallium (T1) uptake and SPECT with MRI in children with brainstem gliomas. Ten children with brainstem gliomas were prospectively evaluated by 201Tl-SPECT and MRI. Histological verification was obtained in eight children - two died prior to surgery. Quantitative thallium uptake index (UI) was obtainable in five cases and was compared...

In the occupational community, there is a widespread faith in the utility of personality assessment for selection, development, etc. This faith has been immune to arguments, supported by empirical evidence, regarding the poor correlation between personality and performance in the workplace (these correlations rarely exceed the 0.2–0.3 level). The d...

We investigated the effects of time-pressure stress on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices performance in 64 low- and 64 high-trait anxious female subjects, tested either during premenstruation or menstruation. Based on previously reported associations between arousal/stress and intelligence test performance, we predicted that menstrual cycle var...

Interactive effects of impulsivity (Imp), time of day and time-pressure stress on two uncorrelated intelligence tests were studied in 192 femaleSs in India.Ss were tested under both low and high stress conditions in either the morning (8.00–10.00 a.m.) or the evening (6.30–8.30 p.m.). In general, the pattern of Imp × time of day × stress interactio...

This was a pilot teleradiology project connecting two secondary KwaZulu-Natal hospitals' radiography departments to a central Durban teaching hospital. The purpose of the study was to assess the usefulness of same-day teleradiology reports to the medical staff and whether such a service changed patient management. After 1 month's service at each ho...

The Gray-Wilson Personality Questionnaire (GWPQ) was translated into Hindi and administered to 246 male and 191 female university students. It measures six animal-learning paradigms corresponding to Gray's (1987) three-emotion systems model of personality. Sex differences previously reported from the United Kingdom and Japan were replicated: Women...