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Cognitive bias and unusual experiences in childhood

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Abstract

Cognitive therapy is recommended for children with psychotic-like, or unusual, experiences associated with distress or impairment (UEDs; UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2013 [1]). Accurate models of the psychological underpinnings of childhood UEDs are required to effectively target therapies. Cognitive biases, such as the jumping to conclusions data-gathering bias (JTC), are implicated in the development and maintenance of psychosis in adults. In this study, we aimed to establish the suitability for children of a task developed to assess JTC in adults. Eighty-six participants (aged 5–14 years) were recruited from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and community (school) settings, and completed the probabilistic reasoning (‘Beads’) task, alongside measures of intellectual functioning, general psychopathology, and UEDs. Self-reported reasoning strategy was coded as ‘probabilistic’ or ‘other’. Younger children (5–10 years) were more likely than older children (11–14 years) to JTC (OR = 2.7, 95 % CI = 1.1–6.5, p = 0.03); and to use non-probabilistic reasoning strategies (OR = 9.4, 95 % CI = 1.7–48.8, p = 0.008). Both UED presence (OR = 5.1, 95 % CI = 1.2–21.9, p = 0.03) and lower IQ (OR = 0.9, 95 % CI = 0.9–1.0, p = 0.02) were significantly and independently associated with JTC, irrespective of age and task comprehension. Findings replicate research in adults, indicating that the ‘Beads’ task can be reliably employed in children to assess cognitive biases. Psychological treatments for children with distressing unusual experiences might usefully incorporate reasoning interventions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the children who participated in this research and their parental responsibility holders, together with the staff of the participating school and clinic. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for the work through a grant from the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity (ref. R100417). EK, KRL and CH are partly supported by and/or are affiliated with, the National Institute for Health Research Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Unit (BRC/U) at the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, United Kingdom. KRL was supported in part by funding from a National Institute of Health Research Career Development Fellowship (CDF/08/01/015).

Conflict of Interest

There were no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    Nedah Hassanali, Tamatha Ruffell, Catherine Ames, Colette Hirsch, Elizabeth Kuipers & Suzanne Jolley

  2. South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Sophie Browning, Karen Bracegirdle, Catherine Ames, Richard Corrigall & Lucy Maddox

  3. National Institute for Health Research Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Unit (BRC/U) at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Kristin R. Laurens, Colette Hirsch & Elizabeth Kuipers

  4. Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Kristin R. Laurens

  5. Research Unit for Schizophrenia Epidemiology, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Kristin R. Laurens

  6. Schizophrenia Research Institute, Sydney, Australia

    Kristin R. Laurens

  7. University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Colette Hirsch

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  1. Nedah Hassanali
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  2. Tamatha Ruffell
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  3. Sophie Browning
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  4. Karen Bracegirdle
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  11. Suzanne Jolley
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Correspondence to Suzanne Jolley.

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Hassanali, N., Ruffell, T., Browning, S. et al. Cognitive bias and unusual experiences in childhood. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 24, 949–957 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0644-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0644-6

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