Negative schizotypy is associated with impaired episodic but not semantic coding in a conditional learning task

Context processing deficits associated with negative schizotypy may reflect variation in semantic or episodic declarative coding. Healthy volunteers (n = 166) were grouped on the basis of their introvertive anhedonia and unusual experiences scores on the Oxford and Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (OLIFE). Discrimination learning was measured using a commodity-trading task that required participants to predict profit (+) and loss (−) outcomes. Two forms of a biconditional discrimination (AX+, BY+, AY−, BX−) were employed. With fixed locations (n = 84) A & B were presented on the left, X & Y were on the right, with variable locations (n = 82) A, B, X, & Y occurred randomly in left and right locations. Negative schizotypy reflected the expression of a cognitive phenotype that impaired episodic (configural) representation formation. People with many negative schizotypal traits will struggle to learn when their choices are guided by multiple stimuli in inconsistent locations.