Relationships between cognitive biases, decision-making, and delusions

Multiple measures of decision-making under uncertainty (e.g. jumping to conclusions (JTC), bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE), win-switch behavior, random exploration) have been associated with delusional thinking in independent studies. Yet, it is unknown whether these variables explain s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-06, Vol.13 (1), p.9485-9485, Article 9485
Main Authors: Sheffield, Julia M., Smith, Ryan, Suthaharan, Praveen, Leptourgos, Pantelis, Corlett, Philip R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/1595
631/477/2811
Bias
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Computer applications
Decision Making
Delusions
Exploration
Exploratory behavior
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Life Sciences
Mental disorders
multidisciplinary
Paranoia
Psychosis
Psychotic Disorders
Reversal learning
Schizophrenia
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Thinking
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Multiple measures of decision-making under uncertainty (e.g. jumping to conclusions (JTC), bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE), win-switch behavior, random exploration) have been associated with delusional thinking in independent studies. Yet, it is unknown whether these variables explain shared or unique variance in delusional thinking, and whether these relationships are specific to paranoia or delusional ideation more broadly. Additionally, the underlying computational mechanisms require further investigation. To investigate these questions, task and self-report data were collected in 88 individuals (46 healthy controls, 42 schizophrenia-spectrum) and included measures of cognitive biases and behavior on probabilistic reversal learning and explore/exploit tasks. Of those, only win-switch rate significantly differed between groups. In regression, reversal learning performance, random exploration, and poor evidence integration during BADE showed significant, independent associations with paranoia. Only self-reported JTC was associated with delusional ideation, controlling for paranoia. Computational parameters increased the proportion of variance explained in paranoia. Overall, decision-making influenced by strong volatility and variability is specifically associated with paranoia, whereas self-reported hasty decision-making is specifically associated with other themes of delusional ideation. These aspects of decision-making under uncertainty may therefore represent distinct cognitive processes that, together, have the potential to worsen delusional thinking across the psychosis spectrum.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-36526-1