Drive level and reinforcement as variables in paired associate learning of schizophrenics

Abstract

It was postulated that schizophrenics (high anxious Ss) have higher drive level than normals (low anxious Ss). Deductions of differential performance of schizophrenics and normals were tested using groups of 60 Ss in a paired associates (PA) learning situation involving the variables: (a) situational reinforcement (punishment and reward), (b) specificity of reinforcement (generalized and response specific) and (c) complexity of the task. It was found that schizophrenics performed better on simple PA and worse on complex PA than normals of matched learning ability. Punishments facilitated simple PA learning and disrupted complex PA learning compared with rewards, and the effect was most marked for schizophrenics.