Logical reasoning in schizotypal personality

Thinking dispositions and cognitive reflection performance in schizotypy

Schizotypy refers to the continuum of normal variability of psychosis-like characteristics and experiences, often classified as positive schizotypy (‘unusual experiences’; UE) and negative schizotypy (‘introvertive anhedonia’; IA). Here, we investigated the link between schizotypy and cognitive processing style and performance. A particular focus was on whether schizotypy is associated more with Type 1 (automatic/heuristic) than Type 2 (reflective/effortful) processes, as may be expected from findings of impaired top-down control in schizophrenia. A large sample (n = 1,512) completed online measures pertaining to schizotypy (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory for Feelings and Experiences; O-LIFE), thinking style (Rational Experiential Inventory-10, Actively Open-Minded Thinking Scale), and reasoning performance (Cognitive Reflection Test). Higher positive (UE) and negative (IA) schizotypy were associated with more pronounced Type 1 processing, i.e. greater self-reported Faith in Intuition (FI), lower Need for Cognition (NFC), lower Actively Open-Minded Thinking (AOT), and lower cognitive reflection test (CRT) scores. Canonical correlation analysis confirmed a significant association between UE and increased FI, lower AOT and lower CRT performance, accounting for 12.38% of the shared variance between schizotypy and thinking dispositions. IA was more highly associated with reduced NFC. These findings suggest that schizotypy may be associated with similar thinking dispositions to those reported in psychosis, with different patterns of associations for positive and negative schizotypy. This result informs research on reasoning processes in psychosis and has clinical implications, including potential treatment targets and refinements for cognitive therapies.

Magic Performances - When Explained in Psychic Terms by University Students

Paranormal beliefs (PBs), such as the belief in the soul, or in extrasensory perception, are common in the general population. While there is information regarding what these beliefs correlate with (e.g., cognitive biases, personality styles), there is little information regarding the causal direction between these beliefs and their correlates. To investigate the formation of beliefs, we use an experimental design, in which PBs and belief-associated cognitive biases are assessed before and after a central event: a magic performance (see also Mohr et al., 2018). In the current paper, we report a series of studies investigating the "paranormal potential" of magic performances (Study 1, N = 49; Study 2, N = 89; Study 3, N = 123). We investigated (i) which magic performances resulted in paranormal explanations, and (ii) whether PBs and a belief-associated cognitive bias (i.e., repetition avoidance) became enhanced after the performance. Repetition avoidance was assessed using a random number generation task. After the performance, participants rated to what extent the magic performance could be explained in psychic (paranormal), conjuring, or religious terms. We found that conjuring explanations were negatively associated with religious and psychic explanations, whereas religious and psychic explanations were positively associated. Enhanced repetition avoidance correlated with higher PBs ahead of the performance. We also observed a significant increase in psychic explanations and a drop in conjuring explanations when performances involved powerful psychic routines (e.g., the performer contacted the dead). While the experimentally induced enhancement of psychic explanations is promising, future studies should account for potential variables that might explain absent framing and before-after effects (e.g., emotion, attention). Such effects are essential to understand the formation and manipulation of belief.

Schizotypy--do not worry, it is not all worrisome

A long-standing tradition in personality research in psychology, and nowadays increasingly in psychiatry, is that psychotic and psychotic-like thoughts are considered common experiences in the general population. Given their widespread occurrence, such experiences cannot merely reflect pathological functioning. Moreover, reflecting the multi-dimensionality of schizotypy, some dimensions might be informative for healthy functioning while others less so. Here, we explored these possibilities by reviewing research that links schizotypy to favorable functioning such as subjective wellbeing, cognitive functioning (major focus on creativity), and personality correlates. This research highlights the existence of healthy people with psychotic-like traits who mainly experience positive schizotypy (but also affective features mapping onto bipolar disorder). These individuals seem to benefit from a healthy way to organize their thoughts and experiences, that is, they employ an adaptive cognitive framework to explain and integrate their unusual experiences. We conclude that, instead of focusing only on the pathological, future studies should explore the behavioral, genetic, imaging, and psychopharmacological correlates that define the healthy expression of psychotic-like traits. Such studies would inform on protective or compensatory mechanisms of psychosis-risk and could usefully inform us on the evolutionary advantages of the psychosis dimension.

Psychosis-proneness and socially relevant reasoning

Reasoning biases have been suggested as having a role in the formation and maintenance of delusions, in particular when the content is personal or social. The present study investigated whether biases when making logical inferences about neutral and personally relevant statements may be seen in individuals hypothetically prone to psychosis. Sixty-one participants completed a multi-dimensional measure of psychosis-proneness (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences) and a conditional inference task. It was found that highly anhedonic participants made more invalid inferences both when reasoning about the consequences of others' emotions and implications for their own self-state. Impulsive Non-conformity was also associated with poor reasoning when 'deducing consequences from others emotions'. The findings suggest that individuals with impulsive and/or anhedonic traits may tend to ignore alternative information when reasoning about personally relevant emotional statements leading to poorer reasoning.

Sustained attention deficits in relation to psychometrically identified schizotypy: evaluating a potential endophenotypic marker

Sustained attention deficits have been posited as a potential endophenotypic marker of vulnerability to schizophrenia. Prior studies have indicated that schizophrenia patients, their first-degree relatives, and psychosis-prone individuals, identified on the basis of measures of positive schizotypy, have demonstrated sustained attention deficits. To date, there have been no published reports of sustained attention deficits in individuals with negative schizotypy, as measured by the revised Social Anhedonia Scale. In this study, we examined sustained attention, measured with the CPT-Identical Pairs version, in 160 individuals with elevated scores on the Chapman Perceptual Aberration and/or Magical Ideation Scales, 96 individuals with elevated scales on the Social Anhedonia Scale, and 137 controls. Both psychosis-prone groups performed more poorly than the controls in terms of discrimination ability, as measured by d', though the groups did not differ in terms of either their reaction time or overall response criterion (lnbeta). These results provide evidence that both positive and negative aspects of schizotypy are associated with sustained attention deficits, as measured by the Continuous Performance Test. The findings add to the converging evidence indicating that sustained attention deficits are a potential endophenotypic indicator of a schizophrenia diathesis.

Do positive schizotypal symptoms predict false perceptual experiences in nonclinical populations?

We examined whether positive schizotypy (i.e., reports of hallucinatory and delusional-like experiences) in nonclinical participants could predict false perceptual experiences during detection of fast-moving words beyond a possible response bias. The participants (N = 160) were assigned to one of two conditions: they were asked either to make presence/absence judgments (loose criterion) or to read aloud every detected word (strict criterion). Regression analysis showed that high levels of positive schizotypy predicted false alarms in the loose condition and false perceptions of words in the strict condition. The obtained effects were independent of detection accuracy, task order, impulsivity, and social desirability. We discuss the results in the context of information processing biases linked to the positive symptomatology of schizophrenia. Clinical and theoretical implications are also considered.