Maturity of schizophrenic conceptual style in relation to intelligence.

Abstract

Schizophrenic thinking has often been described as or regressive but developmental analysis has been deterred by unavailability of tests separating premorbid ontogenetic disorder from that erupting with psychosis. The Color Form Representation Test was evolved to meet such need (2). The 20-item test involves matching a standard card with one of three comparisons using either no conceptual basis, color concept, form concept, or figural representation. These options respectively provide a four-level ascending hierarchy that characterizes the conceptual style of children from below age 2 to beyond 6 yr. Recent studies have supported the test's reliability and empirical validity (1, 2). In the interest of examining the cognitive import of primitive conceptual styles among schizophrenics, as gauged by the test, we present here correlations with rhe Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and its subtests. Subjects were 36 hospitalized schizophrenics (12 paranoid, 24 nonparanoid) diagnosed independently by two psychiatrists according to strict formal criteria (4). They ranged in age from 18 to 46 yr. (M = 24.9) and history of illness from 0 to 13 yr. (M = 4.3); 15 were males, 21 females, 17 were blacks, 19 whites. Both the tests were administered after 14 to 16 wk. of drug and milieu therapy, when active psychotic symptoms had in most cases subsided. Patients' means on Color Form Representation Test and Full Scale WAIS were respectively 75% and 81.3, exposing a level of deficiency congruent with large-scale studies (3). Significant Pearson rs between the two tests were obtained, as shown below. The