Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/2440/74055
Citations | ||
Scopus | Web of Science® | Altmetric |
---|---|---|
?
|
?
|
Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Reasoning heuristics across the psychosis continuum: the contribution of hypersalient evidence-hypothesis matches |
Author: | Balzan, R. Delfabbro, P. Galletly, C. Woodward, T. |
Citation: | Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 2012; 17(5):431-450 |
Publisher: | Psychology Press |
Issue Date: | 2012 |
ISSN: | 1354-6805 1464-0619 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Ryan Balzan, Paul Delfabbro, Cherrie Galletly and Todd Woodward |
Abstract: | INTRODUCTION: Hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches has recently been proposed as the cognitive mechanism responsible for the cognitive biases which, in turn, may contribute to the formation and maintenance of delusions. However, the construct lacks empirical support. The current paper investigates the possibility that individuals with delusions are hypersalient to evidence-hypothesis matches using a series of cognitive tasks designed to elicit the representativeness and availability reasoning heuristics. It was hypothesised that hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches may increase a person’s propensity to rely on judgements of representativeness (i.e., when the probability of an outcome is based on its similarity with its parent population) and availability (i.e., estimates of frequency based on the ease with which relevant events come to mind). METHODS: A total of 75 participants (25 diagnosed with schizophrenia with a history of delusions; 25 nonclinical delusion-prone; 25 nondelusion-prone controls) completed four heuristics tasks based on the original Tversky and Kahnemann experiments. These included two representativeness tasks ("coin-toss" random sequence task; "lawyer-engineer" base-rates task) and two availability tasks ("famous-names" and "letter-frequency" tasks). RESULTS: The results across these four heuristics tasks showed that participants with schizophrenia were more susceptible than nonclinical groups to both the representativeness and availability reasoning heuristics. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that delusional ideation is linked to a hypersalience of evidence-hypothesis matches. The theoretical implications of this cognitive mechanism on the formation and maintenance of delusions are discussed. |
Keywords: | Humans Delusions Cognition Imagination Decision Making Judgment Schizophrenia Neuropsychological Tests Schizophrenic Psychology Adult Middle Aged Female Male Evidence-Based Practice |
Rights: | © 2012 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business |
DOI: | 10.1080/13546805.2012.663901 |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2012.663901 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest Psychiatry publications |
Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.