Can the ability to infer relevance account for dimensional psychoticism? An exploration of a representative community...

Psychoticism is a common feature of psychological disorders. Deficits in perceptual inference have been associated with the development of psychotic symptoms. Traditional testing of perceptual inference has had low ecological validity, limiting the ability to infer functional relationships. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between the capacity to infer relevance in dynamic environments and dimensional psychoticism, as well as to investigate the association between inferring relevance and dimensional psychoticism.

Four hundred participants, representative of the general population of the USA, completed an online questionnaire consisting of the Brief Symptom Inventory, as well as demographic and clinical questions, followed by a computerised Inferring Relevance Task.

Dimensional psychoticism was not significantly associated with inferring relevance. An ability to infer relevance also did not significantly distinguish between individuals with and without symptoms of psychoticism.

The ability to infer relevance may not be a reliable marker of psychotic-like experiences in general population samples. Future research should use a clinical population to better understand the potential interactions between neurocognitive mechanisms and how this may be associated with psychoticism.