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Schizophrenia / Psychotic Disorders

(PS7-90) Information Search Decisions and Belief Updating in Schizophrenia

Saturday, November 16, 2024
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: Schizophrenia is a chronic condition characterized by atypical beliefs and impaired decision-making, which contribute to ongoing functional impairment. Therapeutic interventions for schizophrenia (e.g., CBTp; CT-R) involve understanding how cognitive biases may impact decisions to seek out external information and update internal belief systems. While research has identified biases in how information may differently shape beliefs of those with schizophrenia (Bronstein et al., 2019; McLean et al., 2016), it is unclear whether there is a  difference in how people with schizophrenia volitionally seek out, and dynamically interact with, confirmatory and disconfirmatory evidence when faced with multiple, competing sources of information. Participants (43% female; 29% Asian, 57% Black, 14% Other) with schizophrenia completed a novel behavioral task, during which they received preliminary information about an ambiguous situation and were then given the opportunity to freely explore pieces of evidence that could alter their understanding and beliefs about the situation. Evidence was labeled according to its directionality (confirmatory, disconfirmatory, or neutral), and participants could discontinue search at any point. Participants provided ratings of their current beliefs after engaging with each piece of evidence. Preliminary analyses via repeated-measures ANOVA determined beliefs were impacted by the evidence directionality (F = 19.10, p=.003, η2G = 0.71, N=7), with Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons between evidence types each significant at p≤.01. These preliminary results demonstrate that participants beliefs were updated by evidence. Further findings on dynamic search strategies as a function of initial/preceding beliefs and associations with symptomatology (delusions, mistrust, intolerance of uncertainty) will be reported. These findings will aim to provide critical insights into biases in the information-integration processes that impact belief formation and drive decision-making in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.