title: Impairment in flexible emotion-based learning in hallucination- and delusion-prone individuals.
abstract: Deficits in emotion-based learning are implicated in many psychiatric disorders. Research conducted with patients with schizophrenia using one of the most popular tasks for the investigation of emotion-based learning, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), has largely been inconclusive. The present study employed a novel, contingency-shifting variant IGT with hallucination- and delusion-prone university students to determine whether previous findings were due merely to the presence of psychosis. Following initial screening of a sample of 253 students (mean age = 20.13 years, S.D. = 3.27), 28 high (10 male, 18 female) and 27 low (12 male, 15 female) hallucination-prone and 27 high (7 male, 20 female) and 26 low (11 male, 15 female) delusion-prone individuals completed the contingency-shifting variant IGT. Results showed no significant differences between the performances of high and low hallucination- and delusion-prone individuals during the original phase of the task. Differences only emerged following the onset of the contingency-shift phases, with individuals high in hallucination- and delusion-proneness having impaired performance compared with low hallucination- and delusion-prone individuals. Overall, the present findings demonstrate that impairments associated with hallucination- and delusion-proneness are specific to the shift phase of the contingency-shifting variant IGT, which supports previous findings with patients with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cella
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dymond
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D003702:Delusions / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales