Defective Relationship Between Subjective Experience and Behavior in Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between subjective experience and behavior abnormalities in schizophrenia was investigated. METHOD: Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and 18 normal comparison subjects completed a general knowledge task with two incentive conditions to measure monitoring effectiveness, control sensitivity, and response criterion setting. RESULTS: The patients’ levels of monitoring effectiveness and control sensitivity were lower than those of the comparison subjects. The effect of incentives on response criterion values was similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Patients were impaired in subjectively assessing the correctness of their knowledge, and their behavior was less determined by subjective experience than that of normal subjects. The patients’ intact sensitivity to incentives has implications for cognitive remediation.