Self-perceived Cognitive Lapses and Psychological Well-Being in Schizotypy: Generalized and Domain-Specific Associations.

A critical link between schizotypy and schizophrenia is impoverished cognitive functioning. In the majority of studies, though: (1) cognition is examined with standard neuropsychological tasks; and (2) high‐schizotypal individuals are defined according to criteria applied in the respective study sample. Taking these considerations into account, the aims of the present study were to examine: (1) differences between four pre‐defined, according to normative criteria, schizotypal (paranoid, negative, disorganized and cognitive‐perceptual) and one control groups in self‐perceived cognitive lapses; and (2) associations between schizotypal dimensions, self‐perceived cognitive lapses and psychological well‐being. Two hundred and sixty‐one participants were administered the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and the Flourishing Scale, which assesses psychological well‐being. Negative schizotypals reported higher scores in almost all CFQ measures compared with the control group (all p values < 0.01) along with poorer psychological well‐being compared with the control and the cognitive‐perceptual groups (both p values < 0.001). The disorganized group had higher scores in distractibility, blunders and total CFQ scores compared with the control group (all p values < 0.001). High psychological well‐being was significantly associated with low negative schizotypy and CFQ blunders along with high cognitive‐perceptual schizotypy (all p values < 0.05). To summarize, negative schizotypy is associated with a profile of “generalized” self‐perceived cognitive lapses while disorganized schizotypy is characterized by self‐perceived cognitive slips that have previously been shown to be mediated by a fronto‐parietal network. Although psychological well‐being is negatively associated with social‐context specific cognitive failures and negative schizotypy, it is positively associated with cognitive‐perceptual schizotypy.