Paranoia is associated with impaired novelty detection and overconfidence in recognition memory judgments.

Abstract

False recognition, or the mis-categorization of a “new” stimulus as “old,” might support fixed false beliefs by blocking new learning or otherwise contributing to internal representations of the world that are at odds with reality. However, the mechanisms through which false recognition is facilitated among paranoid individuals remain unclear. We examined 2 phenomena that may contribute to this effect: an overreliance on fluency-based processes during recognition, manifesting as a lower threshold for judging items as recently studied, and a propensity to require less information to come to a highly confident judgment. The former would be expected to be particularly pronounced among items that are generally familiar, as opposed to completely novel. Here, we manipulated familiarity in a recognition memory paradigm by using stimuli that varied in their rate of extraexperimental exposure (i.e., real words vs. pseudowords). Further, to determine whether paranoia was associated with a tendency to differentially misallocate confidence to errors, we calculated a hierarchical Bayesian estimate of metacognitive sensitivity (meta-d′) in addition to the more classic d′. In line with our hypotheses, paranoia was associated with an increased rate of false alarm errors, differentially so for familiar versus unfamiliar stimuli, suggesting that a context-agnostic, familiarity-based memory system might underlie observed memory distortions. What’s more, paranoia was associated with heightened confidence on error trials and reduced metacognitive sensitivity. These findings highlight 2 distinct deficits—in both novelty detection and metacognitive monitoring—that contribute to false recognition judgments, offering targets for cognitive interventions to reduce memory distortion among paranoid individuals.

Evaluation on Long-Term Test–Retest Reliability of the Short-Form Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in Patients with Schizophrenia

“…45 Schizophrenia is known to be associated with certain types of psychopathology including cognitive impairments and delusional symptoms which may lead to memory distortions. [46][47][48] Our results showed, however, that no significant relationships existed between the reported CTQ-SF scores and current cognitive functions or psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia (Tables 3 and 4). We thus preliminarily concluded that CTQ-SF is a temporally stable and stateindependent assessment of childhood maltreatment in schizophrenic subjects, which is less likely to be influenced by patients' current clinical symptoms and cognitions.…”

Reduced benefit of novelty detection on subsequent memory judgments in paranoia.

“…These findings build on mixed results seen in prior studies. Koller and Cannon (2021) and Sahakyan and Kwapil (2019) demonstrated that paranoia and positive schizotypy, respectively, were associated with impaired novelty detection (i.e., false recognition), suggestive of overactive retrieval writ large. Yet another study showed positive schizotypy to be associated with an improved ability to correctly reject similar lures (Vass et al, 2022); still another suggested no such association (Kraguljac et al, 2018).…”

“…Memory impairment extends across the psychosis spectrum and is highly correlated with functional impairments (Aleman et al, 1999; Green, 1996; Seabury & Cannon, 2020), yet its mechanisms remain poorly understood. While the majority of past work in this domain has focused on associations between memory and the negative and disorganized symptom clusters of schizophrenia, recent studies have suggested that positive symptoms (i.e., paranoia and positive schizotypy) may be characterized by a difficulty with novelty detection , as indexed by a greater tendency to commit “false alarm” errors (i.e., mistaking a “New” stimulus as “Old”; Koller & Cannon, 2021; Sahakyan & Kwapil, 2019). This genre of memory error may be reflective of reduced engagement of pattern separation relative to pattern completion (Tamminga et al, 2012)—the competing hippocampal computations that support encoding and retrieval , respectively (O’Reilly & McClelland, 1994).…”

“…have suggested that positive symptoms (i.e., paranoia and positive schizotypy) may be characterized by a difficulty with novelty detection, as indexed by a greater tendency to commit "false alarm" errors (i.e., mistaking a "New" stimulus as "Old"; Koller & Cannon, 2021;Sahakyan & Kwapil, 2019). This genre of memory error may be reflective of reduced engagement of pattern separation relative to pattern completion (Tamminga et al, 2012)-the competing hippocampal computations that support encoding and retrieval, respectively (O'Reilly & McClelland, 1994).…”

Kaleidoscope

“…Koller & Cannon explored novelty detection and confidence in recognition, in a sample from the general population to see how they differed between those with and without paranoia. 2 Participants were given the Revised Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale, which consists of a ten-item persecution subscale and an eight-item reference subscale. Across two trials, 35% of the 392 participants scored at or above the threshold for moderate paranoia.…”