Knowledge corruption for visual perception in individuals high on paranoia.
Studies revealed that patients with paranoid schizophrenia display overconfidence in errors for memory and social cognition tasks. The present investigation examined whether this pattern holds true for visual perception tasks. Nonclinical participants were recruited via an online panel. Individuals were asked to complete a questionnaire that included the Paranoia Checklist and were then presented with 24 blurry pictures; half contained a hidden object while the other half showed snowy (visual) noise. Participants were asked to state whether the visual items contained an object and how confident they were in their judgment. Data from 1966 individuals were included following a conservative selection process. Participants high on core paranoid symptoms showed a poor calibration of confidence for correct versus incorrect responses. In particular, participants high on paranoia displayed overconfidence in incorrect responses and demonstrated a 20% error rate for responses made with high confidence compared to a 12% error rate in participants with low paranoia scores. Interestingly, paranoia scores declined after performance of the task. For the first time, overconfidence in errors was demonstrated among individuals with high levels of paranoia using a visual perception task, tentatively suggesting it is a ubiquitous phenomenon. In view of the significant decline in paranoia across time, bias modification programs may incorporate items such as the one employed here to teach patients with clinical paranoia the fallibility of human cognition, which may foster subsequent symptom improvement.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistr. 52, Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: moritz@uke.uni-hamburg.de.
Steffen
S
Moritz
Occupational and Consumer Psychology, Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany.
Anja S
AS
Göritz
Department of Management and Economics, Kuehne Logistics University, Hamburg, Germany.
Niels
N
Van Quaquebeke
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistr. 52, Hamburg, Germany.
Christina
C
Andreou
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistr. 52, Hamburg, Germany.
David
D
Jungclaussen
Clinical Psychological Science, Section Forensic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Maarten J V
MJ
Peters
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception
Confidence; Delusions; Depression; Knowledge corruption; Paranoia; Schizophrenia; Visual illusions