Obsessive–compulsive disorder patients have a reduced sense of control on the illusion of control task
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There is disagreement regarding the role of perceived control in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study used a traditional illusion of control paradigm (Alloy and Abramson, 1979) to empirically test control estimation in OCD. Twenty-six OCD patients and 26 matched comparison subjects completed an illusion of control task wherein their goal was to attempt to exert control over a light bulb. The density of reinforcement (high, low) and the valence of trials (gain, loss) were experimentally manipulated within subjects. Unbeknownst to participants, the illumination of the light bulb was predetermined and irrespective of their behavior. OCD patients exhibited lower estimates of control compared with healthy comparison subjects. There were no interactions between group and outcome density or group and valence. We found that OCD patients endorse lower estimates of control than comparison subjects. This finding highlights a potential role for contingency learning in the disorder.
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Exposure to uncontrollable stressors biases controllability estimation, establishing relevance for neuropsychiatric disorders involving altered perceptions of controllability.
“Furthermore, exposure to uncontrollable stressors biases this process assessed by the explore-and-predict task, hence establishing its relevance for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders involving altered perceptions of controllability 9,12,13,35 .”
From Stress-sensitive inference of task controllability (2022) · cites this paper as [12]
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Self-citationStress-sensitive inference of task controllability
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- Authors
- Gillan, C. M., Morein-Zamir, S., Durieux, A. M. S., Fineberg, N. A., Sahakian, B. J., & Robbins, T. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- University of Hertfordshire (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Gillan, Claire M.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2014-03-13
- Volume
- 5
- Pages
- 204-204
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3952480
- OpenAlex
- W2002906712
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 1.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Anglia Ruskin Research Online (Anglia Ruskin University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (089589/Z/09/Z, 089589, G00001354, 093875)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Medical Research Council (G00001354, 089589/Z/09/Z)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- obsessive-compulsive disorder, perceived control, illusion of control, contingency learning, reinforcement density
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