Study of the Relationship Between Intuitive and Sensory Abilities

V. L. Talanov

St. Petersburg, April 2017

Contents

Problem statement; hypothetical mechanisms of intuition and sensing

Methodology; lists of questions for the scales used in the study

Results

Conclusions

Literature

Abstract

The study tested and confirmed the hypothesis of a substantial negative correlation between purely intuitive and purely sensory abilities (R=-0,70). Hypothetical cerebral mechanisms determining intuitive and sensory properties of the psyche are listed and reviewed. A close mutual correlation was confirmed among psychologically different properties belonging to unified syndrome complexes of the properties of introverted intuition and extraverted sensing. The quantitative contribution of different functions of the psyche to the syndrome complex of irrational psychological properties was analyzed.

Keywords: Socionics; Intuition; Sensing; Personality traits; Psychology of individual differences; Dopamine; Noradrenaline; Norepinephrine; Serotonin; Acetylcholine.

Problem Statement

The study tested and confirmed the hypothesis that purely sensory and purely intuitive abilities form a dichotomy in the sense that “pure” intuitive abilities are strongly negatively correlated with purely “sensory” abilities. Thus, sensory and intuitive abilities are not independent of one another, and it is justified to conceive of a single continuous axis of intuitive-sensory properties with two opposite poles: intuitive and sensory. However, a one-hundred-percent negative correlation between intuitive and sensory properties is not observed either. As will be shown in the present work, owing to this relative freedom, which does not exceed 40% of the variance in the variability of these properties, in some people (irrationals) the sum of the quantitative expression of their intuitive and sensory properties exceeds that of rationals.

At the beginning of 2017, the author had already published the paper V. L. Talanov. Study of the Relationship Between Logical and Ethical-Emotional Abilities http://sociotoday.narod.ru/corFT.docx, in which a fairly strong negative correlation (-0,57) between abilities within the framework of “pure logic” and “pure ethics” was demonstrated experimentally (see Table 1).

Table 1. Linear correlations between the scores of 3 experimental scales in a sample of 1729 people (taken from [1]).

The hypothetical cerebral mechanisms supporting logical and ethical-emotional abilities most likely belong to different brain regions; as for the biochemical mechanisms of these abilities, they are not yet entirely clear. However, even the abilities themselves that we assign to the logical or ethical pole differ sufficiently in meaning, and there is little temptation to assume in advance that logic is merely a property identical to the absence of ethics. In the case of the intuition-sensing pair, however, the situation is not quite the same, because here the theoretical picture, strangely enough, is clearer today than in the case of logic-ethics, and at the level of all currently existing theoretical conceptions there are important reasons to believe that intuition and sensing are primarily only two opposite states of the same mechanism. Therefore, in the opposition between intuitive and sensory abilities, one should expect a negative coefficient of linear correlation between them whose absolute value would be greater (at any rate, not smaller) than the analogous correlation coefficient between logical and ethical-emotional abilities.

More precisely, in the case of the intuition-sensing pair, several different cerebral mechanisms may be superimposed, each of which at one pole of its state produces predominantly intuitive abilities and at the other predominantly sensory abilities. What are these hypothetical mechanisms?

First Mechanism

The first of the hypothetical mechanisms of the intuition-sensing axis is associated with the number and activity of inhibitory serotonin presynaptic receptors in neuronal synapses through which informational perception of the external world and information exchange between an individual’s consciousness and memory are carried out. When activated by serotonin, presynaptic serotonin receptors limit the release of other neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft from the axons of any neurons on which these serotonin receptors are located (including from the axons of glutamatergic neurons, the most common neurons in the CNS). Due to this serotonin-induced synaptic inhibition, any information flows in the CNS decay more rapidly. Above all, this leads to the rapid decay of the associative process and especially inhibits specifically Ni imagination, which uses very long chains of associations unfolding over time, where one association immediately gives rise to another (thus, presynaptic serotonin receptors suppress Ni abilities to construct long plot-based fantasies unfolding over time). By contrast, during REM sleep with dreaming, when serotonergic activity in the brain is completely suppressed (and this suppression is a known and well-established scientific fact), nothing prevents the temporal unfolding of long plot-based associative chains of introverted intuition, and any person (even one who has extremely weak, vulnerable Ni during the day) becomes a pronounced Ni specialist during a nighttime dream.

Why is this serotonin-mediated inhibition of neurotransmitter release into the synaptic cleft necessary? It is a regulatory mechanism specially created by evolution, primarily promoting the decay of information search and thereby limiting it in time (without this, any person would become schizophrenic). Second, the reduction in the quantities of neurotransmitters released from the axon of the regulated neuron into the synaptic cleft, caused by this regulation, means that the neurotransmitter released into the synapse does not become excessive in concentration; as a result, it is used only to excite the membrane of the neuron immediately following this synapse and does not diffuse into the synapses of unrelated though nearby neurons, and thus does not cause parasitic excitation of adjacent neurons or the so-called “spread of information.” The spread of information (provided that serotonergic inhibition of axons is weak) is another cause of the lively associative process in intuitive types, this time affecting Ne more than Ni.

Thus, serotonergic inhibition of neurotransmitter release from axons increases the precision of information-filter tuning, makes any information search more narrowly directed and error-free, prevents “slipping” onto adjacent associations, and also promotes rapid decay of an information search that has already taken place and exhausted itself (if it receives no new requests). If this process of serotonergic inhibition of presynaptic neuronal membranes is active in a person (owing to large numbers of presynaptic serotonin receptors or high serotonin concentrations), then we obtain the sensory pole, with its precision of signal transmission, absence of object-recognition errors, but also the accompanying impoverishment of any associative process. If, by contrast, this inhibitory process, which narrowly focuses information transfers, is weakened in a person (for example, because of reduced serotonin production), then we have an intuitive type.

Second Mechanism

In addition to inhibitory serotonin receptors on the presynaptic membranes of many neurons (the output membrane of a neuron located before the synaptic cleft), there are serotonin receptors of a completely different type on their postsynaptic membranes (that is, on the input membrane of the neuron following the synapse), which perform the opposite, excitatory role by increasing the sensitivity of the neuron following the synapse to excitation. These serotonin receptors have an entirely different protein structure (because they are a completely different type of serotonin receptor), and they perform not an inhibitory but, on the contrary, an excitatory role. Their task is to regulate and partly limit the very process of serotonergic inhibitory regulation carried out by presynaptic serotonin receptors, preventing it from going too far. Postsynaptic receptors, if activated by serotonin, increase the sensitivity of postsynaptic membranes to excitation by the principal neurotransmitter (for example, glutamate) used in the synaptic cleft to transmit excitation from neuron to neuron.

Overall, there are still fewer excitatory postsynaptic serotonin receptors on neurons than inhibitory presynaptic ones (because inhibitory serotonin receptors predominate quantitatively); therefore, a general increase in the concentration of serotonin in the fluid bathing the neurons also produces an overall predominantly inhibitory effect, which promotes rapid decay of information flows and more precise and narrowly targeted tuning of all information signals transmitted in the CNS. But every general rule has exceptions. Inhibitory presynaptic and excitatory postsynaptic serotonin receptors have different protein structures, and although they share a common universal key (the neurohormone serotonin), each of these two types of serotonin receptor, inhibitory and excitatory, also has its own unique biomolecular keys that open (stimulate) only the receptor of its own type.

One such unique key is the hallucinogen LSD; it activates only excitatory postsynaptic serotonin receptors, and activates them very strongly and “firmly,” remaining attached to them for a long time and not “detaching” from them immediately. As a result, under LSD the sensitivity to excitation rises sharply in all postsynaptic membranes receiving the neurotransmitter signal, provided that their host neurons have postsynaptic serotonin receptors. What does this lead to? Under LSD, neurons ultimately begin to become excited even by trace amounts of neurotransmitter in the synaptic cleft. Any neurotransmitter always diffuses somewhat out of the synaptic cleft and therefore, in trace quantities, also penetrates into the synapses of entirely different, though neighboring, neuronal chains. Normally, these trace quantities of diffused neurotransmitters are nowhere near sufficient to excite “non-target” neurons. But under LSD, which increases neuronal sensitivity, these trace quantities of neurotransmitter become quite sufficient to excite neighboring “wires” as well. The “neuronal wires” thus partially lose their insulation, as it were, and their resistance to current also decreases. Therefore, the rapid decay of information chains that is normal under ordinary conditions no longer occurs during the action of LSD; for example, a visual image does not fade for a long time, and when one attempts to “extinguish” it by an effort of will, it instead intensifies and even multiplies (for example, at first before your mind’s eye you saw only one colored cartoon little man; he interferes with your thinking, you tried mentally to ignore him and “drive him away,” and now in his place a whole company of cartoon soldiers in colored uniforms and shakos is marching).

Because the mutual isolation of neighboring neuronal synapses also deteriorates sharply under LSD, the processes of information search and sensory recognition of objects likewise sharply lose their selectivity and precision. Visual illusions of erroneous recognition become commonplace under LSD; for example, you look at a round soap dish on the edge of the bathtub but distinctly see instead a pot with a flowering cactus that only remotely resembles it in shape. You understand that this cannot be, that you have never had pots with cacti in your bathroom, shake your head while trying to focus your visual attention, and, lo and behold, for a few seconds the normal soap dish is back in place. But as soon as you relax your sensory focus a little again, instead of the quite real dirt stains at the joint between the bathtub and the wall you see many whiskered cockroaches running back and forth there. One even spread its wings with dark veins, fluttered them, and buzzes, preparing to take off… With the eyes closed, under the influence of the hallucinogen, outright phantasmagoria begins: against the dark background of closed eyelids, or even with open eyes against a dark wall, you see the bright, colored, fantastical dreams typical of nighttime dreaming, in which associations readily replace one another and link one after another in an endless marching stream, except that you are not asleep but awake and fully conscious.

Neuroimaging methods that make it possible to see “in color” on a monitor the activity of different regions of the brain color almost the entire brain red under LSD; this means that almost all neurons of the brain (at least those that have serotonin receptors) are actively functioning at this time, ultimately creating continuous informational noise for the brain. Consciousness is no longer capable of coping with this noise or directing the information search in any way. It can only sit quietly and passively observe (whether with pleasure or with angry panic is a matter for the observer and depends greatly on mood and attitude) the unfolding stream of random and typically dreamlike associations.

Thus, artificial and selective stimulation of excitatory postsynaptic serotonin receptors (through the action of their agonist LSD) produces approximately the same effect as suppression of inhibitory presynaptic serotonin receptors (which can occur, for example, through the complete cessation of serotonin access to neurons during normal physiological sleep).

It is known that serotonin receptors are most abundant in neurons of the visual system. This is because the visual system, which processes signals not sequentially but in parallel, on a simultaneous basis, has the greatest need both for rapid decay of signals that have already “served their purpose” and for increased selective precision (narrow focusing), both when searching for information in visual memory and when transmitting information from the eyes to higher processing divisions of the CNS. The auditory analyzer and the motor areas of the cortex also contain serotonin receptors responsible for processes of information focusing, but there are far fewer of them. This is because the auditory and motor systems require much slower signal decay (signals there are perceived sequentially, one after another, and simply must, for correct recognition, be combined into associative chains). If the auditory system “suppressed” its associative process with the same force as the visual system usually does, it would be extremely difficult for us to grasp “as a whole” the meaning of long phrases we hear, or, from the first sounds of a heard phrase or individual word, to anticipate its ending in advance, thereby facilitating adequate and correct perception of its integral meaning and sense, and so on. In the motor areas, relatively more serotonin receptors should be present in those subdivisions that specialize in precise fine manual motor control; these are areas predominantly associated with Si, that is, with tactile sensitivity (which is the evolutionary precursor of the visual analyzer) and with fine motor control.

For these reasons, most of the principal symptoms of LSD action are concentrated in the functioning of the visual analyzer and also in the sphere of cutaneous sensitivity, for which introverted sensing is responsible, that is, where neurons contain the most serotonin receptors. Thus, silent visual hallucinations of a dreamlike type and “cartoon-like” texture (the so-called “visual pseudohallucinations”), as well as cutaneous hallucinations-synesthesias (feelings of crawling goosebumps, dynamic sensations of suborgasmic tension and pleasure as though rolling across the body), are entirely ordinary and obligatory symptoms of medium doses of LSD, whereas auditory pseudohallucinations (“voices”) occur very rarely and only in very few people. At the peak of intoxication, however, symptoms of slow sound decay often appear: any note that is heard continues for another couple of seconds as though rolling through the head as a loud reverberating echo and then usually, with agonizing intrusiveness, demands continuation, as though resolution into the next musical-harmonic third or fourth…

LSD and hallucinogens with similar effects that act selectively on different types of serotonin receptors (mescaline, psilocybin, etc.) were invented by humans and are an external factor alien to the brain. However, it would probably be rash to think that the brain lacks its own endogenous molecular agents with analogous effects, even if they have not yet been discovered by science. If different types of receptors exist, then there should also be endogenous agents for selectively controlling them; this is, generally speaking, a general rule of brain function confirmed by many other examples. The expression of each such agent depends on its own genes, and the expression of the serotonin receptors themselves, of the two types, inhibitory and excitatory, also separately depends on different genes, while genes differ among people. Thus, the balance between the two types of serotonin receptors, inhibitory presynaptic receptors (promoting sensory abilities) and excitatory postsynaptic receptors (promoting the spread of information from neurons, intensifying and prolonging the associative process, and thereby assisting abilities of the intuitive pole), can evidently manifest differently in different people depending on their genetic characteristics.

Third Mechanism

This hypothetical mechanism is associated with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (neuronal chains that use acetylcholine as the transmitter of excitation across a synapse are called cholinergic). Cholinergic neurons play a principal role in transmitting information between the cerebral hemispheres (the neuronal bundles connecting the hemispheres are specifically cholinergic in nature). In addition, cholinergic neurons are active in the hippocampus, a center in the CNS responsible for spatial memory, semantic memorization and, at least in part, episodic memory, as well as for the processes of retrieving information from all these types of memory. Cholinergic neurons are also actively involved in the attention function; when cholinergic neuronal function deteriorates, both all forms of memorization and recall and the attention function suffer (working-memory capacity decreases, and the focusing, stability, and capacity of visual and auditory attention decline, etc.). Individual characteristics such as simple neuromuscular reaction speed and choice-reaction speed also depend to a large extent on the quality of cholinergic neuronal function.

From socionic statistics it is known with certainty that, compared with sensing types, intuitive types on average have weakened functions of memorizing and recalling information, reduced reaction speed, and also poorer characteristics of attention (this is especially pronounced in the IEI psychotype). It is clear that any deviations at the stages of acetylcholine synthesis or transport in neurons, or at the stage of its immobilization in synapses by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, can lead to strengthening or weakening of sensory abilities, of which memory, attention, reaction speed, and speed of thought processes are undoubtedly components. However, it is not entirely clear how deterioration in the functioning of cholinergic neurons (for example, because of insufficient acetylcholine synthesis or because of its accelerated immobilization in synapses by excessively active acetylcholinesterase) can lead to improvement of purely intuitive abilities, in particular to expansion of the associative process.

If such a relationship really exists, we will nevertheless attempt to formulate three hypothetical explanations at different levels for it, explaining the mechanism by which associative abilities might improve when cholinergic transmission deteriorates.

The first explanation concerns the processes of acetylcholine synthesis in the neuron. The point is that some of the biochemical stages of this process are the same as those used in the synthesis of the myelin (fatty) sheath of neurons, which electrically insulates them from adjacent neurons and from the bathing fluid, thereby preventing the spread of information (that is, preventing parasitic transmission of excitation from one neuron to another located nearby). Impaired myelination of neurons may well be a cause of reduced quality of information focusing during information search and identification in the CNS, that is, it may contribute to broadening of the associative process. This may play an especially important role in information transmission between the cerebral hemispheres, where information-transmitting neurons (specifically cholinergic ones) run in a tight bundle in which many neurons closely adjoin one another and are separated only by their myelin sheaths. If, for genetic reasons, some common link is altered in acetylcholine synthesis in the neuronal body and in synthesis of its myelin sheath, then a reduction in the quantity of acetylcholine will selectively lead to deterioration of sensory abilities, whereas a reduction in the quality of the myelin fatty insulation of neurons will simultaneously lead both to deterioration of sensory abilities and to improvement of intuitive abilities.

The second explanation consists in invoking mechanisms of biochemical compensation to make up for a deficit of cholinergic activity. For example, reduced serotonergic inhibition of cholinergic neural pathways may serve as a means of compensating for their reduced information throughput, which in turn leads to slower decay of neural processes and to increased spread of information from neuronal synapses (see the description of the First Mechanism above). Certain changes in dopaminergic activity, likewise leading to intensification and broadening of associative processes, may also serve as a hypothetical means of compensating for reduced cholinergic activity.

The third hypothetical explanation may lie in mechanisms of purely psychological compensation for a deficit of cholinergic activity. If the speed of interhemispheric transfer is reduced, and if memory capacity and attention capacity are reduced, this may lead the subject to seek out and train types of cerebral activity for which these deficits are not a major impediment, and these types of activity belong mainly to the intuitive sphere.

Fourth Mechanism

This mechanism (like the subsequent, fifth mechanism) is associated with features of the dopaminergic system of the CNS in the brain’s thalamus and has no direct relation to either the serotonergic or, especially, the cholinergic systems of the brain. Dopamine receptors are also divided into several different types encoded by different genes and performing different functions on CNS neurons. Dopamine receptors of the so-called D2 type (the most common type) are found most often in the basal ganglia, including the striatum (the so-called “striped body”). They are also found in the thalamus, a structure that functions as a relay center, primary filter, and distributor of sensory information on its way to the frontal neocortex, where it is ultimately brought to awareness and evaluated. Several neuroimaging studies have shown that people with signs of schizothymia or people with increased creativity (both groups can be regarded as more intuitive than the average population level) have a reduced number of D2-type dopamine receptors in the thalamus. The authors of these studies believe that D2 receptors of the thalamus play an inhibitory role in it, increasing the filtering of information passed by the thalamus to the neocortex. Accordingly, a reduction in the density of thalamic D2 dopamine receptors can be interpreted as a deterioration in the thalamus’s filtering capacity with respect to the information passing through it and, ultimately, as reduced quality of tuning of the filters that pass information from memory and the sense organs into consciousness.

Fifth Mechanism

It is known that a systemic increase in dopamine production in the CNS, or the administration of drugs that biochemically imitate the action of dopamine (dopamine-receptor agonists), in itself leads to enhancement of intuitive abilities, particularly strongly stimulating extraverted intuition and such a component of it as novelty seeking. In part this is a direct-action mechanism (dopamine enhances the functioning of the center that rewards exploratory activity with a feeling of pleasure). But in part the positive effect of dopamine on intuitive abilities may also be due to the accompanying reduction in serotonergic activity (it is known that dopaminergic and serotonergic activities in the CNS are partly negatively correlated). Chronic use of drugs that increase dopamine concentration, as well as various forms of endogenous dopamine addiction (for example, gambling addiction), gradually also lead to the appearance of schizothymic symptomatology, initially dominated by a poorly filtered intrusive associative stream and deterioration of a number of sensory functions (including stability of visual attention), but subsequently, as the condition worsens, intrusive thoughts, auditory misperceptions and pseudohallucinations (intrusive voices), and so on, are added. It can therefore be hypothesized that chronic enhancement of dopamine release in the CNS may, by a compensatory mechanism, lead to reduced density of dopamine receptors (including those located in the thalamus), which in turn may lead to reduced quality of the thalamus’s information filters, ultimately producing schizophrenia-like positive symptomatology often arising in people with chronically elevated dopamine production or those abusing its agonists (amphetamine and cocaine). The author personally observed a chronic computer-gaming addict with an initial SEE psychotype in whom, against a background of increasing desocialization, over 5 years the stable dominance of SEE and SLE peaks in his type socionic profile shifted to equally stable dominance of IEE, EIE, and IEI peaks, with the appearance of symptoms of intrusive thoughts (while the SEE peak remained only in fourth place). In this person’s trait profile, only the sensing-intuition peak changed substantially, with its inversion to the opposite pole, whereas the other socionic traits, including vertness, remained little affected.

Unlike blockade of serotonergic mechanisms, a direct increase in dopamine concentrations more often provokes deterioration of information filtering not in the visual but in the human auditory system; this, however, develops not immediately but gradually, as a result of chronic dopamine elevation. It should be noted that despite the enormous number of studies worldwide devoted to the human dopaminergic system, its positive relationships with schizophrenia-like positive symptomatology and with schizothymic and intuitive personality characteristics remain not entirely understood to this day. Part of the reason is the large number of diverse dopamine-sensitive receptors with very different functions, not all of which remain well studied even today.

Sixth Mechanism

An increase in adrenergic and noradrenergic activity in the CNS also promotes the manifestation of some intuitive traits while simultaneously suppressing certain sensory ones. Different people differ in the frequency with which adrenaline and noradrenaline are brought “into play,” and they also differ in the number of receptors for these neurohormones in CNS neurons. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are the brain’s crisis managers, most actively engaged in extreme situations in which the resources of the entire body and CNS must be mobilized for fight or flight. In such situations, there is no time for food or comfort; therefore these drives are suppressed, while the corresponding brain mechanisms are deprived of resources (it is more appropriate to redirect them to other tasks). Even fine motor control, also associated with Si, becomes unnecessary to the brain and organism and is suppressed as well (at the same time, in the periphery noradrenaline provides increased glucose supply to skeletal musculature, that is, an energy source; the task of movement becomes power and speed rather than precision). It should be noted that many manifestations of Fi are also suppressed in the CNS; in such situations, there is no time for social norms. By contrast, prohibitions on excessively broad associations and the corresponding restrictions on Ne are at least weakened; extreme situations require new approaches and screening of a broad spectrum of possibilities.

It appears that Te is also enhanced under the action of noradrenaline, and the “center for evaluating the effectiveness of actions” in the anterior cingulate cortex is to a substantial extent noradrenergic in nature. Under the influence of central noradrenaline from the brain’s locus coeruleus (which exclusively produces it for the CNS), the pragmatic functions of attention are enhanced, as is the ability to use key information for subsequent learning and decision-making. Motives dictated by noradrenaline are characterized by striving toward a goal by the shortest path while ignoring any situational stimuli (application of noradrenaline to the hippocampus of rodents and cats produces precisely this result, unlike application of other neurotransmitters). The locus coeruleus system (which produces noradrenaline for the CNS) receives convergent information from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The OFC is responsible for pleasure, and its neurons are activated specifically by immediate pleasure, not by recognition of its source or by the organism’s general preparation for a response (as is characteristic of the dopamine reward center in the basal ganglia). ACC activation, by contrast, is based on evaluation of costs and outcomes. Some studies have found that the ACC is activated in response to erroneous actions, negative feedback, or financial losses. In addition, ACC activation depends on task difficulty. Thus, ACC activation combines the processes of evaluating task difficulty and making the corresponding decision in order to determine whether the outcome is worth the required effort (“whether the game is worth the candle”). The functions of the ACC and OFC are probably directly related to effective decision-making, and their signals directed to the locus coeruleus may modulate phasic production of noradrenaline in order to obtain a cortical response to evaluation of the decision made (see: Gehring, William J.; Goss, Brian; Coles, Michael G.H.; Meyer, David E.; Donchin, Emanuel (1993). “A Neural System for Error Detection and Compensation”. Psychological Science 4 (6): 385. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00586.x.).

A pilot study conducted by the author of behavioral markers characteristic of adrenaline and noradrenaline surges shows that these markers are most characteristic of the LIE and ILE types, and partly of EIE as well. It can be stated that all these types are intuitive, all are distinguished by weak Si and Fi and fairly strong Ne and Ni. It appears that Te is also enhanced under the action of noradrenaline, and the “center for evaluating the effectiveness of actions” in the frontal cortex is to a substantial extent noradrenergic in nature. However, the neurobiological mechanisms of the corresponding psychological shifts affecting the intuition-sensing axis and occurring under the influence of increased adrenergic activity of the brain still remain insufficiently clear.

In summary of the six hypothetical mechanisms that may drive intuitive and sensory abilities in opposite directions in the CNS, it should be noted that these mechanisms are quite diverse and may well overlap with one another. Some of them determine a fairly rigid negative correlation between intuitive and sensory abilities, whereas others determine only a partial one, leaving, at least theoretically, some room for independent simultaneous manifestation of both intuitive and sensory properties. Overall, based on consideration of the hypotheses explaining intuitive and sensory mechanisms, one can expect a clearly expressed negative correlation of high absolute magnitude between intuitive and sensory abilities.

Methodology

To test the hypothesis of negative correlation between purely intuitive and purely sensory abilities, data from 958 respondents (228 men, 730 women) from the author’s SZ-584 sociodiagnostic questionnaire were used. The composition of the 584 questions in this sociodiagnostic questionnaire, originally intended to diagnose the proximity of participants to each of the 16 standard socionic psychotypes, also makes it possible to construct special scales for diagnosing the properties of interest to us: pure intuitive abilities, separately divided into those predominantly associated with Ni and Ne (without admixture of indicators of denial of sensory abilities) - see Tables 2; 3; pure sensory abilities, likewise selectively gravitating toward Si or Se (and likewise without pronounced indicators of denial of intuitive abilities) - see Tables 4; 5; additional scales containing questions denying the presence of abilities for Ni, Ne, Si, and Se (see Tables 6-9); and questions characterizing the finer structure of the Ni and Se scales (see Tables 10-16).

The test lists of questions for diagnosing abilities selectively associated with Ni, Ne, Si, and Se (Tables 2-5) were balanced so that, when they were summed pairwise (for example, when the normalized results of the Ni and Ne scales were summed), loadings on traits unrelated to the intuition pole (for example, on the logic-ethics trait) were minimized. For this reason, the corresponding lists did not include all questionnaire questions having high loadings on the corresponding functions and satisfying the condition of not denying properties of the opposite pole (sensory for intuitive functions, intuitive for sensory functions).

The participants’ raw responses to each questionnaire question were cleansed of the influence of indicators of their differing individual levels of social dissimulation 9tendency to answer candidly or to embellish themselves in their responses) and of differing stylistic response characteristics (that is, tendencies to answer yes or no more often, or to give ratings with a narrow or broad spread). The responses were then normalized to achieve a sample mean of zero and a sample standard deviation of one for each individual questionnaire question. The raw value of each scale for each participant was calculated by summing the participant’s processed responses across all questions in that scale. The raw values of the resulting scales were then in turn normalized to a standard deviation of one (across the entire sample) for each scale. Generalized intuition scores were obtained by summing the normalized scores of the Ni and Ne scales, after which they were in turn normalized to a standard deviation of one. Similarly, generalized sensing scores were calculated as the sum of the normalized scores of the Si and Se scales, after which they too were in turn normalized to a standard deviation of one across the entire sample. Linear correlations were then calculated among the scores of all scales (both directly measured and computed) over the array of results from all participants, and graphs were constructed (using the capabilities of the licensed MS EXCEL program).

Correlations were calculated twice, for two data arrays. The first time (Table 17), they were calculated on the array of participant results (among all scales of interest to us) that had not been corrected for “sample skewness” (that is, for the unequal representation of different psychotypes in it). The second time (Table 18), they were calculated for data arrays that had been corrected for the unequal representation of psychotypes in the sample. In this case, the correction is performed by dividing all scale results of each participant by the square root of the proportion of that participant’s psychotype in the sample. This mathematical operation, carried out before calculating the correlations, makes it possible to eliminate completely any influence of “sample skewness” (the unequal proportion of different psychotypes in it) on the resulting correlations.

To construct Tables 19a and 19b (the values of all experimental scales averaged across 16 psychotypes and across 15 socionic traits), the results of diagnosing participants’ psychotypes using the SZ-584 questionnaire were used (the methodology for diagnosing psychotypes and constructing type and trait profiles of questionnaire statements using questionnaires of this and similar series is described in greater detail in the methodological sections of the author’s other works, links to which are provided at the end of the article).

Table 2. “Pure Ni” scale (introverted-intuitive abilities - item composition)

Table 3. “Pure Ne” scale (extraverted-intuitive abilities - item composition)

Table 4. “Pure Si” scale (introverted-sensory abilities - item composition)

Table 5. “Pure Se” scale (extraverted-sensory abilities - item composition)

Table 6. “Anti-Ni” scale (denial of introverted-intuitive abilities - item composition)

Table 7. “Anti-Ne” scale (denial of extraverted-intuitive abilities - item composition)

Table 8. “Anti-Si” scale (denial of introverted-sensory abilities - item composition)

Table 9. “Anti-Se” scale (denial of extraverted-sensory abilities - item composition)

Table 10. Ni subscale - sense of the future and fantasies of another time

Table 11. Anti-Ni subscale - denial of the sense of the future and fantasies of another time

Table 12. Ni subscale - minor mood, depression, masochism, and ill will

Table 13. Ni subscale - dynamic temporal unfolding of imagined events

Table 14. Ni subscale - withdrawal into oneself, schizothymic manifestations

Table 15. Se subscale - aggression and competition

Table 16. Se subscale - other properties, excluding aggression and competition

Results

The results are presented in Tables 17, 18, 19a, 19b and in Figures 1 and 2.

Table 17. Linear intercorrelations of 19 scales in a sample of 958 people (without corrections)

Table 18. Linear intercorrelations of 19 scales in a sample of 958 people (with correction for sample heterogeneity - before calculating the correlations in this table, the data were fully corrected for unequal representation of psychotypes in the sample by dividing each participant’s results by the square root of the proportion represented by that participant’s psychotype in the sample)

Table 19a. Mean type values (type profiles) of the normalized scores of all scales.

Table 19b. Trait profiles of the normalized scores of all scales

Conclusions

1. The experimental coefficient of linear correlation between pure intuition (scale 18) and pure sensing (scale 16) was -0,70 (Table 17). This is a negative value whose absolute magnitude is indeed greater than that of the previously investigated analogous correlation between pure logic and pure ethics (-0,57). Thus, the principal hypothesis of the study is confirmed.

2. In terms of their relationship with irrationality, the four perception functions form the sequence Ne, Ni, Se, Si. Ne makes the greatest contribution to irrational properties. Introverted sensing turns out (at least according to the results of the SZ-584 questionnaire) to be, in essence, a weakly rational function. This is not shown directly in the tables, but Table 19a indirectly shows that Fe, among the formally rational functions, also turns out to be an “odd one out” - it is the only one of the corresponding four that, in its properties, turns out to be a weakly irrational function. According to the questionnaire results, the SLI psychotype turns out to be weakly rational rather than irrational, whereas the EIE psychotype, by contrast, is weakly irrational rather than rational (see Table 19a). These results are understandable if the tasks attributed to the rational psychological pole (planning, evaluation, and control of one’s own behavior, carried out mainly by active regions of the frontal neocortex) are compared with the tasks solved by socionic functions. Formally irrational Si, like most rational functions, also gravitates through its mechanisms toward the frontal and parietal cortex of the neocortex. Control of fine movements, and therefore their planning and the construction of their sequence, is one of its important tasks. Se is also associated with movements, although coarser ones, but unlike Si it also has a strong limbic component associated with supporting instinctive forms of behavior. Therefore, in its overall properties Se gravitates more strongly toward the irrational pole than Si does. As for Fe, its neocortical components are quite minimal, and this function mainly gravitates toward ancient limbic mechanisms, so there is no reason to be surprised by its relative “irrationality” (that is, the opposition of its properties to the general properties of the other three rational functions).

3. All subscales of introverted intuition represented by its different principal properties (Nos. 9, 11, 12, 13) are positively correlated with one another, genuinely forming a single factor. The same applies to the two Se subscales.

4. The sum of all four perception functions (with equal weights after normalization) is positively correlated with irrationality (which is quite expected), but it also has a moderate loading on the extraversion and intuition scales (which in turn corresponds to the fact that irrationality in the population is correlated with extraversion and with intuition). The predominant relationship of the sum of the four perception functions with intuition is explained in purely formal-mathematical terms by the fact that Ni and Ne are more closely correlated with one another than Si and Se are with each other; therefore, in the sum of all perception functions, the variance component of intuition predominates over the variance component of sensing. According to the data of the present study, Ne is the most irrational of the four perception functions, and Se is the most extraverted.

5. The distribution of people along the intuition-sensing axis is a solid, continuous continuum with no points of concentration at the poles of the axis. From the standpoint of the neurobiology and genetics of the human psyche, this is an expected and natural result. If a person’s tendency toward baldness is controlled by more than 200 independent genes (as was recently shown in one fundamental experimental study), it would be strange to expect a much smaller number of genes to encode a person’s position on the intuition-sensing axis. Such a large number of independent factors guarantees a continuous distribution of the magnitude of any trait according to the Gaussian law. The review in the present work of hypothetical neurobiological mechanisms underlying the formation of intuitive and sensory traits likewise identifies at least six principal “clusters” of such hypothetical mechanisms, and within each of these “clusters” several causal factors may also act independently of one another. Moreover, some of these factors may even change flexibly over the course of life under the influence of external circumstances (which is realized through the dependence of the expression of many genes on these external circumstances). This may also impart considerable flexibility to a person’s position on the intuition-sensing axis, although the influence of stable innate traits on a person’s position on this axis apparently remains determining, at least for most members of the population.

Other Recent Works by the Author

1. V. L. Talanov. Study of the Relationship Between Logical and Ethical-Emotional Abilities. http://sociotoday.narod.ru/corFT.docx

2. V. L. Talanov. Everything Unknown and Little-Known About the Eight Functions of the Psyche. Part I: Calculation of Functions, Quantitative Value of All Functions in the Psychotype, Substantive Content of the Functions: http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkcii1.html

3. V. L. Talanov. Everything Unknown and Little-Known About the Eight Functions of the Psyche. Part II: On the Semantics of Functions in the Program and Creative Positions: http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkcii2.html

4. V. L. Talanov. Detailed Study of Extraverted Sensing Clusters (2016): http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkc_bs.html

5. V. L. Talanov. Detailed Study of Introverted Sensing Clusters (2016): http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkc_ws.html

6. V. L. Talanov. Are Psychological Types Quantized? Testing Population Distribution Density at the Boundaries Between the 16 “Standard” Psychotypes. Introduction of 4 New Functions of the Psyche. (2016): http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkc_3.html

7. V. L. Talanov. Experimental Study of the Validity of Sociodiagnostic Methods (Including the Convergence of Socionic Diagnoses) – December 2013. http://sociotoday.narod.ru/validnost.htm

© Talanov V. L. 2017

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Earlier works by V. L. Talanov (before 2011) can also be found on the website: http://www.newsocionicsmodel.narod.ru