Contingency learning in chronic schizophrenia and its relevance to social motivation deficit

The present study investigates the ability of chronic schizophrenic patients to learn to obtain social rewards when the incentive value of the contingent social event is known. From a group of 40 chronic patients tested for responsivity to social rewards, socially responsive and socially unresponsive patients were selected and compared on a learning task. Patients who were highly motivated to obtain social reinforcement did not emit the reinforced response during 300 learning trials any more frequently than did patients who were not motivated by social rewards. It was only when the experimental contingency was specified that responsive and unresponsive patients could be differentiated. The implications of these findings for social motivation theories of schizophrenia are discussed.