Non-literal understanding and psychosis: Metaphor comprehension in individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Deamer, Felicity; Palmer, Ellen; Vuong, Quoc C.; Ferrier, Nicol; Finkelmeyer, Andreas; Hinzen, Wolfram; Watson, Stuart

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that understanding of non-literal expressions, and in particular metaphors, can be impaired in people with schizophrenia; although it is not clear why. We explored metaphor comprehension capacity using a novel picture selection paradigm; we compared task performance between people with schizophrenia and healthy comparator subjects and we further examined the relationships between the ability to interpret figurative expressions non-literally and performance on a number of other cognitive tasks. Eye-tracking was used to examine task strategy. We showed that even when IQ, years of education, and capacities for theory of mind and associative learning are factored in as covariates, patients are significantly more likely to interpret metaphorical expressions literally, despite eye-tracking findings suggesting that patients are following the same interpretation strategy as healthy controls. Inhibitory control deficits are likely to be one of multiple factors contributing to the poorer performance of our schizophrenia group on the metaphor trials of the picture selection task.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 29, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 26, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2021
• Journal: Schizophrenia Research: Cognition
• Print ISSN: 2215-0013
• Electronic ISSN: 2215-0013
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Article Number: 100159
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scog.2019.100159
• Keywords: Psychiatry and Mental health; Cognitive Neuroscience
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7816025
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Non-literal understanding and psychosis: Metaphor comprehension in individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia; Journal Title: Schizophrenia Research: Cognition; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scog.2019.100159; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.