Journal of Psychology & Behavioral Science

Evaluating the Sensory Sensitivity of Individuals with High Intellectual Potential Using a Lexical Decision Task
Conchita Lallevé-Glorieux, Johan Briglia, Sophie Martin, Denis Brouillet

Abstract
Our study tested the hypothesis of hyperesthesia in people with High Intellectual Potential (HIP), reported in clinical observations. A group of HIP participants (N= 17) and a no-HIP group (n-HIP =17), matched on age and sex, were asked to complete a lexical decision task, consisting of weak and strong sensory words drawn from earlier work (Bonin, Méot, Ferrand & Bugaïska, 2015). Consistent with the literature, our results show that lexical decision times are shorter for strong, compared to weak sensory words. A further analysis of mean response times for strong and weak words highlighted that the HIP group was more sensitive to weak sensory words than the n-HIP group. These results support the argument that HIP individuals have heightened sensory sensitivity.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jpbs.v9n2a7