Impaired conditional task performance in a high schizotypy population: relation to cognitive deficits

Cognitive impairments in schizophrenia have been characterized as reflecting a core deficit in the maintenance or use of task-setting cues to mediate appropriate ongoing behaviour. This analysis suggests that cognitive deficits in schizophrenia will be particularly evident when different task-setting cues dictate when different responses are required by the same stimuli. One simple task in which task-setting cues are required is a biconditional discrimination. Here we examined the performance of participants with high and low schizotypy scores (Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995) on a biconditional discrimination and an otherwise equivalent, control discrimination that did not require the use of task-setting cues. Participants scoring highly on the Introvertive Anhedonia subscale (which has been allied to the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia) performed poorly on the biconditional, but not on the control, discrimination. No other subscales demonstrated a significant influence on either biconditional or control performance.