Devaluation of Rewards for the Future Is Associated With Schizotypal Personality Features

Abstract

© 2016 The Australian Psychological Society Objective: Empirical evidence has suggested that schizophrenia is associated with dysfunctions in the reward system and working memory. However, little is known about individuals at risk for schizophrenia. In particular, it is not known if those with schizotypal personality features will show similar deficits in these two domains. This study examined whether individuals with schizotypal personality disorder features will subjectively devalue potential rewards in the future and show changes in their decision-making behaviour, compared with healthy controls, and whether this devaluation is inversely associated with working memory performance. Method: A total of 44 participants with schizotypal personality features and 22 healthy control participants without schizotypal personality features completed the Monetary-Choice Questionnaire, the Cambridge Gambling Task, and number and letter span tasks, which assessed delay-discounting rate, decision-making behaviour, and working memory, respectively. Results: The results showed that participants with schizotypal personality features, especially those with negative features, valued delayed rewards in the future to a lesser extent than healthy control participants. However, there was no significant group difference in decision-making on the Cambridge Gambling Task. Moreover, the delay-discounting rate of individuals with schizotypal personality features correlated significantly with working memory performance. Conclusion: The findings suggest that people with schizotypal personality features may be impaired in future reward perception and that this impairment is related to their working memory ability, although their capacity to make decisions is not affected.