The team of researchers from FIDMAG Hermanas Hospitalarias has developed an innovative tool to analyze how people with schizophrenia process information, focusing on the two thinking systems described by psychologist Daniel Kahneman: fast thinking (intuitive and automatic) and slow thinking (analytical and reflective).
The study, led by Betül Yildirim together with Irene Gómez, Nuria Ramiro, Paola Fuentes-Claramonte, María Ángeles García-León, Peter McKenna and Edith Pomarol-Clotet, starts from the hypothesis that the delusions characteristic of schizophrenia could be related to an excessive dependence on fast thinking and/or a reduced involvement of slow thinking. This cognitive imbalance could lead to misinterpretations of events in the patient's environment and make it difficult for the patient to correct them.
To investigate this theory, the researchers developed a battery of 137 questions designed to induce errors when answered quickly and intuitively. These questions were first tested on 176 healthy people and then on 15 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to DSM-5 criteria.
The results revealed that both the healthy volunteers and the patients made more errors on the questions designed to activate rapid thinking. In addition, patients made more errors than healthy subjects.
These results were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychiatric Association of Turkey (where the first author, Betül Yildirim, is from) and won an award.
![isciii[1]](https://fidmag.org/en/img/0-60-ESCALA/isciii1.png "isciii[1]")
