Abstract
Objectives: To examine construct validity of the Pictogram Test (PT) which assesses disturbances in thinking in individuals with schizophrenia. The PT was developed in Russia; it was found to be applicable for the English-speaking population of the USA. The variables of the PT were correlated with Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2).Method: Russian-and English-speaking participants completed the PT and MMPI-2 in their native languages.Results: The PT variables that reflected attribute selection choice of intermediate concepts for memorization and the variables that were geometrical shapes had significant correlations with MMPI-2 scales linked to schizophrenia. This represents evidence of convergent validity. The same PT indices did not significantly correlate with most of the MMPI-2 scales that are not elevated in schizophrenia, representing some discriminant validity of the PT.Conclusions: The less often the participants were able to connect target words with economical intermediate concepts, the higher were the elevations of schizophrenia-related scales. Also, the more abstract and remote their intermediate concepts, the less often they recalled targets. These findings give evidence of the validity of the PT in assessing the thinking of individuals with schizophrenia and related conditions.
Highlights
Thinking distortions and schizophreniaCognitive disturbances and disordered associations in schizophrenia were outlined by the forefathers of modern psychiatry Eugen Bleuler [1] and Emil Kraepelin [2]
The Pictogram Test (PT) variables that reflected attribute selection choice of intermediate concepts for memorization and the variables that were geometrical shapes had significant correlations with Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2nd edition (MMPI-2) scales linked to schizophrenia
The less often the participants were able to connect target words with economical intermediate concepts, the higher were the elevations of schizophrenia-related scales
Summary
Thinking distortions and schizophreniaCognitive disturbances and disordered associations in schizophrenia were outlined by the forefathers of modern psychiatry Eugen Bleuler [1] and Emil Kraepelin [2]. Over 100 years later, there are many studies that prove the concept that cognitive deficits precede the development of positive symptoms of schizophrenia (i.e. hallucinations and delusions) [3,4,5]. Lezak et al [7] and Squire [8] described that patients with damage to the medial temporal limbic and the midline diencephalon areas are more likely to have significant memory storage and consolidation problems Due to their structural brain damage, these patients cannot assign meaning to the materials needed to be remembered. Recent research found that patients with schizophrenia have abnormal brain connectivity in the same areas that precede the development of positive symptoms [9,10]
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