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This thesis examines attentional and cognitive biases for particular facial expressions in delusion-prone and deluded individuals. The exploration of cognitive biases in delusion-prone individuals provides one means of elucidating psychological processes that might be involved in the genesis of delusions. Chapter 1 provides a brief review of the continuum approach to schizophrenia, and outlines recent theoretical conceptualisations of delusions. The study of schizophrenia phenomena at the symptom level has become a popular method of inquiry, given the heterogeneous phenotypic expression of schizophrenia, and the uncertainty surrounding the existence of a core neuropathology. Delusions are one of the most commonly experienced symptoms of schizophrenia, and have traditionally been regarded as fixed, false beliefs that are pathognomonic of an organic disease process. However, recent phenomenological evidence of delusional ideation in the general population has led to the conceptualisation of delusions as multi-dimensional entities, lying at the extreme end of a continuum from normal through to maladaptive beliefs. Recent investigations of the information processing abnormalities in deluded individuals are reviewed in Chapter 2. This strand of research has revealed evidence of various biases in social cognition, particularly in relation to threat-related material, in deluded individuals. These biases are evident in probabilistic reasoning, attribution style, and attention, but there has been relatively little investigation of cognitive aberrations in delusion-prone individuals. In the present thesis, social-cognitive biases were examined in relation to a standard series of faces that included threat-related (anger, fear) and non-threatening (happy, sad) expressions, in both delusion-prone and clinically deluded individuals. Chapters 3 and 4 present the results of behavioural (RT, affect recognition accuracy) and visual scanpath investigations in healthy participants assessed for level of delusion- proneness. The results indicate that delusion-prone individuals are slower at processing angry faces, and show a general (rather than emotion-specific) impairment in facial affect recognition, compared to non-prone healthy controls. Visual scanpath studies show that healthy individuals tend to direct more foveal fixations to the feature areas (eyes, nose, mouth) of threat-related facial expressions (anger, fear). By contrast, delusion-prone individuals exhibit reduced foveal attention to threat-related faces, combined with �extended� scanpaths, that may be interpreted as an attentional pattern of �vigilance-avoidance� for social threat. Chapters 5 and 6 extend the work presented in Chapters 3 and 4, by investigating the presence of similar behavioural and attentional biases in deluded schizophrenia, compared to healthy control and non-deluded schizophrenia groups. Deluded schizophrenia subjects exhibited a similar delay in processing angry faces, compared to non-prone control participants, while both deluded and non-deluded schizophrenia groups displayed a generalised affect recognition deficit. Visual scanpath investigations revealed a similar style of avoiding a broader range of negative (anger, fear, sad) faces in deluded schizophrenia, as well as a common pattern of fewer fixations with shorter duration, and reduced attention to facial features of all faces in both deluded and non-deluded schizophrenia. The examination of inferential biases for emotions displayed in facial expressions is presented in Chapter 7 in a study of causal attributional style. The results of this study provide some support for a �self-serving� bias in deluded schizophrenia, as well as evidence for an inability to appreciate situational cues when making causal judgements in both delusion-prone and deluded schizophrenia. A theoretical integration of the current findings is presented in Chapter 8, with regard to the implications for cognitive theories of delusions, and neurobiological models of schizophrenia phenomena, more generally. Visual attention biases for threat-related facial expressions in delusion-prone and deluded schizophrenia are consistent with proposals of neural dysconnectivity between frontal-limbic networks, while attributional biases and impaired facial expression perception may reflect dysfunction in a broader �social brain� network encompassing these and medial temporal lobe regions. Strong evidence for attentional biases and affect recognition deficits in delusion-prone individuals implicates their role in the development of delusional beliefs, but the weaker evidence for attributional biases in delusion-prone individuals suggests that inferential biases about others� emotions may be relevant only to the maintenance of delusional beliefs (or that attributional biases for others� emotional states may reflect other, trait-linked difficulties related to mentalising ability). In summary, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates the utility of adopting a single-symptom approach to schizophrenia within the continuum framework, and attests to the importance of further investigations of aberrant social cognition in relation to the development of delusions.

This thesis examines attentional and cognitive biases for particular facial expressions in delusion-prone and deluded individuals. The exploration of cognitive biases in delusion-prone individuals provides one means of elucidating psychological processes that might be involved in the genesis of delusions. Chapter 1 provides a brief review of the continuum approach to schizophrenia, and outlines recent theoretical conceptualisations of delusions. The study of schizophrenia phenomena at the symptom level has become a popular method of inquiry, given the heterogeneous phenotypic expression of schizophrenia, and the uncertainty surrounding the existence of a core neuropathology. Delusions are one of the most commonly experienced symptoms of schizophrenia, and have traditionally been regarded as fixed, false beliefs that are pathognomonic of an organic disease process. However, recent phenomenological evidence of delusional ideation in the general population has led to the conceptualisation of delusions as multi-dimensional entities, lying at the extreme end of a continuum from normal through to maladaptive beliefs. Recent investigations of the information processing abnormalities in deluded individuals are reviewed in Chapter 2. This strand of research has revealed evidence of various biases in social cognition, particularly in relation to threat-related material, in deluded individuals. These biases are evident in probabilistic reasoning, attribution style, and attention, but there has been relatively little investigation of cognitive aberrations in delusion-prone individuals. In the present thesis, social-cognitive biases were examined in relation to a standard series of faces that included threat-related (anger, fear) and non-threatening (happy, sad) expressions, in both delusion-prone and clinically deluded individuals. Chapters 3 and 4 present the results of behavioural (RT, affect recognition accuracy) and visual scanpath investigations in healthy participants assessed for level of delusion- proneness. The results indicate that delusion-prone individuals are slower at processing angry faces, and show a general (rather than emotion-specific) impairment in facial affect recognition, compared to non-prone healthy controls. Visual scanpath studies show that healthy individuals tend to direct more foveal fixations to the feature areas (eyes, nose, mouth) of threat-related facial expressions (anger, fear). By contrast, delusion-prone individuals exhibit reduced foveal attention to threat-related faces, combined with �extended� scanpaths, that may be interpreted as an attentional pattern of �vigilance-avoidance� for social threat. Chapters 5 and 6 extend the work presented in Chapters 3 and 4, by investigating the presence of similar behavioural and attentional biases in deluded schizophrenia, compared to healthy control and non-deluded schizophrenia groups. Deluded schizophrenia subjects exhibited a similar delay in processing angry faces, compared to non-prone control participants, while both deluded and non-deluded schizophrenia groups displayed a generalised affect recognition deficit. Visual scanpath investigations revealed a similar style of avoiding a broader range of negative (anger, fear, sad) faces in deluded schizophrenia, as well as a common pattern of fewer fixations with shorter duration, and reduced attention to facial features of all faces in both deluded and non-deluded schizophrenia. The examination of inferential biases for emotions displayed in facial expressions is presented in Chapter 7 in a study of causal attributional style. The results of this study provide some support for a �self-serving� bias in deluded schizophrenia, as well as evidence for an inability to appreciate situational cues when making causal judgements in both delusion-prone and deluded schizophrenia. A theoretical integration of the current findings is presented in Chapter 8, with regard to the implications for cognitive theories of delusions, and neurobiological models of schizophrenia phenomena, more generally. Visual attention biases for threat-related facial expressions in delusion-prone and deluded schizophrenia are consistent with proposals of neural dysconnectivity between frontal-limbic networks, while attributional biases and impaired facial expression perception may reflect dysfunction in a broader �social brain� network encompassing these and medial temporal lobe regions. Strong evidence for attentional biases and affect recognition deficits in delusion-prone individuals implicates their role in the development of delusional beliefs, but the weaker evidence for attributional biases in delusion-prone individuals suggests that inferential biases about others� emotions may be relevant only to the maintenance of delusional beliefs (or that attributional biases for others� emotional states may reflect other, trait-linked difficulties related to mentalising ability). In summary, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates the utility of adopting a single-symptom approach to schizophrenia within the continuum framework, and attests to the importance of further investigations of aberrant social cognition in relation to the development of delusions.

Les manifestations comportementales du sadisme commun et de la psychopathie sous-clinique suggèrent qu’ils seraient associés à des déficits affectifs en lien avec le traitement émotionnel. Il est proposé que les déficits affectifs associés au détachement émotionnel et au manque d’empathie chez les individus avec des tendances sadiques et les individus avec des traits psychopathiques seraient dus à des déficits au niveau de la reconnaissance émotionnelle faciale (REF). L’objectif principal de la présente étude était de clarifier l’association entre les tendances sadiques, les traits psychopathiques et la capacité de reconnaissance émotionnelle faciale. Le recrutement des participants s’est effectué dans des maisons de transition provinciales, dans un centre jeunesse, dans un centre d’intervention en délinquance sexuelle ainsi que dans un organisme venant en aide aux hommes aux prises avec des problématiques de violence. Les analyses statistiques ont été menées sur un échantillon se composant d’hommes délinquants (N = 81). La collecte des données s’est effectuée à l’aide de questionnaires en ligne comprenant des informations sociodémographiques ainsi que le Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST) et le Self-Report Psychopathy – Short Form (SRP-SF) ainsi que par une tâche de reconnaissance émotionnelle faciale en immersion virtuelle. Suite aux analyses descriptives, des analyses corrélationnelles de type r de Pearson ainsi que des analyses de régression linéaire multiple ont été menées sur l’ensemble des données. Les résultats suggèrent que les tendances sadiques n’étaient pas associées à des déficits au niveau de la reconnaissance émotionnelle faciale, au contraire, le score aux échelles du sadisme commun prédisait une meilleure habileté à reconnaître les expressions d’émotions. Les résultats suggèrent également que la composante de l’affect plat de la psychopathie serait associée avec une moins bonne performance pour la reconnaissance émotionnelle faciale des émotions en général ainsi qu’à un déficit spécifique au niveau de la reconnaissance de la tristesse. Les résultats sont interprétés en fonction des objectifs spécifiques de cette recherche. / The behavioral manifestations of everyday sadism and subclinical psychopathy suggest an association with emotional deficits and with emotional processing deficits. It is suggested that the emotional coldness and the lack of empathy associated with everyday sadism and subclinical psychopathy are due to facial affect recognition (FAR) deficits. The aim of this study is to assess the association between everyday sadism, subclinical psychopathy and facial affect recognition. The participants of the present study were recruited in provincial halfway houses, in youth centers, in an intervention center for sexual offenders and in an organization offering help to man with a history of violent behaviors. The statistical analyses were conducted on a sample comprised on male general offenders (N = 81). The collection of the data was made using an online questionnaire comprised of sociodemographic information, the Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST), the Self-Report Psychopathy – Short Form (SRP-SF) and a facial affect recognition task. Adding to descriptive analyses, Pearson’s r correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the respective influence of sadistic tendencies and psychopathic traits on predicting facial affect recognition performance. No general nor specific facial affect recognition deficits were found in relation to sadism. On the opposite, sadism was associated with a better performance for overall facial affect recognition and sadness recognition. Results suggest that higher levels of callous affect are associated with a reduced overall facial affect recognition performance and a specific impairment for sadness recognition. The results are discussed according to the specific objectives of this study.

Mémoire de maîtrise présenté en vue de l'obtention de la maîtrise en psychologie (M. Sc) / Introduction. Il est bien établi que les survivants tumeurs cérébrales pédiatriques (STCP) éprouvent des difficultés sociales, et la reconnaissance d’émotions faciales a été étudiée comme un mécanisme sous-jacent. Cependant, l'influence possible de la pandémie sur les capacités de reconnaissance des affects chez les STCP reste inexplorée. La présente étude visait à comparer la reconnaissance des émotions faciales (avec accès au visage complet versus seulement la région des yeux) entre les STCP et des jeunes à développement typique ainsi qu’à examiner son association avec l'adaptation sociale. Méthode. Des STCP (n=23) au moins un an après le traitement et des contrôles (n=24) entre 8 et 16 ans ont complété le sous-test de reconnaissance des affects du NEPSY-II (visage complet) et la version enfant du Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET, seulement le haut du visage). Résultats. Les groupes ne différaient pas sur leurs habiletés de reconnaissance d’émotions et ceux-ci n’étaient pas associés à leur adaptation sociale. Comparé aux normes pré-pandémie, notre échantillon avait plus de difficultés dans leur capacité de reconnaissance d’émotions avec visage complet ainsi qu’une meilleure performance avec seulement le haut du visage disponible (p < .05). Les participants ont aussi obtenu de meilleurs résultats au RMET qu’au NEPSY-II (p< .05). Conclusion. En somme, la pandémie semble avoir joué un rôle sur les capacités de reconnaissance des émotions faciales, tant chez les STCP que chez les contrôles, soulignant la nécessité d'études futures sur les effets à long terme de la pandémie sur les compétences sociales des jeunes. / Introduction. It is well-established that pediatric brain tumour survivors (PBTS) experience social difficulties, and facial emotion recognition has been studied as an underlying mechanism. However, the possible influence of the pandemic on affect recognition abilities in PBTS remains unexplored. The present study aimed to compare facial affect recognition (with full versus partial facial features) between PBTS and healthy controls (HC) and to examine its association with social adjustment. Method. PBTS (N=23, ages 8-16) at least one-year post-treatment and HC (N=24, ages 8-16) completed the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest (full face) and the child version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET, upper face only). Results. The groups did not differ in their ability to recognize emotions, and these were not associated with social adjustment. Compared with pre-pandemic norms, our sample had a lower performance in their emotion recognition ability with full face and a better performance with only upper face (p < .05). Participants also performed better on the RMET than on the NEPSY-II (p< .05). Conclusion. In sum, the pandemic appears to have played a role in facial emotion recognition abilities in both PBTS and controls, highlighting the need for future studies on the pandemic long-term effects on young people's social skills.