O4.4. CONFIDENCE, PERFORMANCE, AND ACCURACY OF SELF-ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL COGNITION: A COMPARISON OF SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

Abstract

Background: Impairments in self-assessment in schizophrenia have been shown to have functional and clinical implications. Prior studies have suggested that overconfidence can be associated with poorer cognitive performance in people with schizophrenia, and that metacognitive awareness of performance may underlie other symptoms such as delusions and disability. However, overconfidence is common in healthy individuals as well. This study examines the correlations between performance on social cognitive tests, confidence in performance, effort allocated to the task, and other aspects of self-assessment in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Methods: Participants were stable outpatients with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n=218) and healthy controls (n=154). Measures included self-reported depression (BDI-2), interpersonal sensitivity (Persecution and Deservedness Scale; PADS), social cognitive ability (Observable Social Cognition Rating Scale; OSCARS), and social functioning (Specific Level of Functioning Scale; SLOF). A performance-based emotion recognition test (Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test; BLERT) assessed social cognitive performance and provided the basis for confidence judgments. Results: Confidence was higher when correct for both healthy controls t(150)=5.87, p