The jumping to conclusions bias associated with symptoms in schizophrenia: which factors influence this bias?

ABSTRACT

Jumping-to-conclusions (JTC) bias has been found to be associated with delusions. However, there is limited data about which other factors are related to JCT bias. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of psychotic, cognitive, impulsivity and anxiety symptoms on JTC bias. We compared individuals with paranoid schizophrenia, non-paranoid schizophrenia, generalized anxiety disorder and healthy individuals in terms of JTC bias. Beads task (90:10 and 60:40 versions), Tower of London task, BPRS, SAPS, SANS and BIS-11 were applied. Our results show that the factors related with JTC bias were different on each version of the Beads task. Education levels, anxiety and negative symptoms of individuals with schizophrenia were found to affect JTC bias on 90:10 version of task, whereas positive symptoms and impulsivity levels were related to JTC bias on 60:40 version. These results are important as they contribute to our understanding of this relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Schizophrenia
• reasoning bias
• data-gathering bias
• probabilistic reasoning task
• beads task
• tower of London task

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank psychologist H. Seda Norçin for helping methodology and Dr. Mustafa Ugurlu for helping statistical analyses. We also would like to thank Dr. Büşra Yürümez Korkmaz for editing and English language assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit organisations.