Dimensional approaches to experimental psychopathology of schizophrenia: shift learning and report of psychotic-like experiences in college students

Adopting a dimensional approach to experimental psychopathology, and taking into account inconsistencies in the previous literature, we examined whether reports of psychotic-like experiences in undergraduate students were associated with shift-learning deficits, akin to those seen in schizophrenia. The participants (N=72) were tested on a new compound stimulus discrimination task before and after a target shift, and were administered a multi-dimensional schizotypy inventory (O-LIFE). Performance impairment following a target shift was associated with the negative (introvertive anhedonia) and the impulsive (impulsive non-conformity) dimension of schizotypy, but not with the positive (unusual experiences), nor the disorganised (cognitive disorganisation) dimension. None of the schizotypy measures were associated with performance on discrimination learning before the target shift. The obtained results are in line with past evidence that shift learning is associated with the severity of the negative symptomatology of schizophrenia. The possibility that psychotic-like features may contribute differentially to performance deficits across successive stages of learning is considered.