Psychiatric symptoms are associated with poor performance and enhanced metacognition in computationally complex decisions

Humans make computationally demanding complex decisions. These are fundamentally different from simple perceptual, knowledge, and value-based decisions, as they are often computationally intractable. Here, we investigated how performance and metacognition in complex decision-making are related to psychopathology, using a large-scale online experiment and a transdiagnostic approach in psychiatry. In the experiment, 800 participants completed a complex decision-making task and psychiatric questionnaires. Factor analysis of the questionnaire data identified three transdiagnostic dimensions of psychiatric symptoms. We found that higher scores on a dimension characterized by compulsive behavior and intrusive thought were associated with diminished performance, increased confidence level, and enhanced metacognitive ability in the complex decision-making task. Furthermore, the other dimensions, characterized by anxiety, depression, inattention, impulsivity, and overactivity, were correlated with reduced confidence level, but not with decision performance or metacognitive ability. These findings deepen our understanding of computationally demanding complex decision-making in the context of its relationship with psychopathology.