Performance Of Schizophrenics Research Articles

Performance of process and reactive schizophrenics on a symbol-digit substitution task.

Schizophrenic patients were classified into process and reactive groups on the basis of ratings on the Phillips Symptoms Checklist. There were 18 Ss in each group. Each group was administered 3 forms of a symbol-digit substitution task. The forms differed in the symbol array used. After adjustment for covariance of age, a significant difference in performance was found between the 2 groups. Also, significant differences among the means for forms were obtained, as well as significant interaction of groups and forms. The rate of information processing of this type of visual material is slower in the process schizophrenic. Since other work has shown that performance involving short-term memory is affected by the set of symbols used, the relatively deficient performance of the process schizophrenic may be attributable to a short-term memory deficit for dealing with this type of visual material.

Roles of interpersonal contact and verbal content in abstract thinking deficits of schizophrenics.

Previous research has suggested that the well-publicized loss of abstract ability by schizophrenics may reflect their difficulties with interpersonal communication rather than abstraction deficits per se. To test this hypothesis, the performance of process schizophrenics, reactive schizophrenics, and normals were compared on four Proverbs tests which varied in the amount of interpersonal communication they entailed. Also, to test the hypothesis that the abstraction deficits reflect only difficulties with verbal stimuli, the performance of the three groups was compared on abstraction tests composed of nonverbal stimuli (the Block Design, Object Assembly, and Category tests) and verbal symbols (the Proverbs tests). The results suggest that abstract thinking deficits in schizophrenics are more prominent in tasks composed of verbal stimuli. However, the results did not support the view that either autism or loss of ability to abstract in adult schizophrenics increases peculiarly with the amount of interpersonal interaction built into the task.

Performance of male schizophrenics on an anagram-solution task: an application of an S-R mediation model.

2 groups of 15 volunteer schizophrenic Ss each worked on 20 word-anagram problems. The anagrams for Group I were the solutions for Group II, and vice versa. Each of the last 10 problem pairs represented a test of the mediation model's prediction that faster solution times will occur when the anagram has a low Thorndike-Lorge frequency and the solution word has a high Thorndike-Lorge frequency. Results strongly confirm this prediction. When anagram and solution were of equal frequency, faster solution times tended to be equally distributed among the two groups. Distinct deficits were evident in the performance of schizophrenics. Over-all results indicate the model is applicable for a schizophrenic sample.

Redundancy-associated deficit in schizophrenic reaction time performance.

Redundancy-associated deficit in schizophrenic reaction time performance.

Work study in the assessment of the effects of phenothiazines in schizophrenia

Abstract Simple techniques for the assessment of work performance in chronic schizophrenics and their validation by work study experts are reported. The value of these techniques has been tested in a double-blind, controlled cross-over trial comparing the effects of chlorpromazine, fluphenazine decanoate and placebo. Results show a significant increment of performance on a complex task when the patients were receiving fluphenazine decanoate. The relevance of these techniques to industrial therapy assessment, rehabilitation and the community management of chronic schizophrenics is discussed.

Schizophrenic thinking as measured by developmental tests.

Schizophrenics and alcoholic controls, in two separate experiments, were tested on two tasks, originally created to study the cognitive development of children. It was hypothesized that the schizophrenics would differ from alcoholic controls on these tasks in the same way as children have been reported to differ from adults, i.e., that schizophrenic thinking would be revealed as concrete and formally regressive. In general, this hypothesis was confirmed. Schizophrenics were less able than alcoholics to use “superordinate” and “nominal” groupings and less able to transpose a 3 by 3 matrix of cylinders. Further analysis revealed that the differences between schizophrenics and controls were due mainly to the poor conceptual performance of the nonparanoid schizophrenics and that success on matrix transposition was related to Ss' descriptions of the ordering principles of the matrix. It was suggested that there is a distinction between nonparanoid and paranoid thinking in terms of structural, or formal, vs. contentual disturbance.

Performance of paranoid schizophrenics and passive-aggressives on two masculinity-feminity tests.

The masculinity-femininity (M-F) dimension was assessed for 15 male paranoid schizophrenics and 15 passive-aggressives. It was hypothesized that the paranoid schizophrenics score in a feminine direction, obtain more feminine scores than the passive-aggressives, and that the latter obtain masculine scores on two M-F tests. These hypotheses were derived chiefly from psychoanalytical theory. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the two groups on either test and that both groups were able to score in the masculine direction. Thus, the passive-aggressives scored in the predicted direction, but the paranoid schizophrenics did not. Alternate explanations which emphasize no disturbance for paranoid schizophrenics in the M-F dimension were proposed. The reality-orienting effects of drugs and heightened sensitivity were also considered.

Form discrimination performance of schizophrenics as a function of social censure, premorbid adjustment, chronicity, and diagnosis.

Form discrimination performance of schizophrenics as a function of social censure, premorbid adjustment, chronicity, and diagnosis.

Intrusion of schizophrenics' idiosyncratic associations into their conceptual performance.

In an initial session for each S, 19 schizophrenic and 7 nonschizophrenic inpatients were instructed to give 10 associations which are of to each of three stimulus words which are category names (e.g., fruit). After approximately 2 wk. without medications, 5s performed a concept identification task which involved signaling whether or not names of specific items belonged to a given category. Names to be identified included instances of the category (e.g., apple), similar things (e.g., carrot) and dissimilar things (e.g., football). Also included were idiosyncratic associations given by S to the category word and idiosyncratic associations given by a different 5. Schizophrenic s produced significantly more idiosyncratic associations than nonschizophrenics on the initial association test. On the conceptual task, schizophrenics significantly more often identified their own idiosyncratic associations to the category names as instances of the category than they did for idiosyncratic associations from another patient. This suggests that at least some idiosyncratic intrusions in the conceptual performance of schizophrenics consist of preexisting associations, as predicted by response interference theories.

Problem-solving performance of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

The performances of paranoid schizophrenic patients (No. = 10) and long-term undifferentiated schizophrenics (No. = 10) were compared on a series of problem-solving tasks. On all problems, the observed differences were in favor of the nonparanoid patients. Rigidity of internal representation of the task was suggested by the paranoid subjects' loss of efficiency in performance when a change in set was required. Their poor performance also resulted from their highly atomistic responses. The nonparanoid subjects, on the other hand, were oriented toward the more abstract, more efficient conceptualization associated with testing collections of entities.

Psychological deficit versus impression management in schizophrenic word association performance.

Psychological deficit versus impression management in schizophrenic word association performance.

Arousal and Task Complexity in Schizophrenic Performance Deficit: A Theoretical Discussion

A theoretical discussion of divergent findings in the research on psychological deficit in schizophrenia is based on an examination of (a) studies contrasting schizophrenics and normals on tasks varying in complexity, (b) evidence that schizophrenics show a higher base level of arousal than normals, and (c) the effect of variations in arousal on task efficiency. It is concluded that an inverted-U relationship between level of arousal and performance efficiency in conjunction with related tenets of drive theory account for apparent inconsistencies in previous research. There is a need to differentiate the performance deficits of highly aroused individuals, regardless of diagnosis, from performances specifically characteristic of schizophrenia.

Assessment of perceptual functioning in schizophrenia.

Most tests which purport to distinguish performance of schizophrenics from that of other patient groups contain large elements of motor behavior. This is particularly so in perceptual tests where motility is a highly significant source of variance. Simple tests of psychomotility are indeed highly sensitive to intra-organismic variations. These tests, such as reaction time, tapping speed and dexterity, are stable and reliable and seem to be relatively independent of intellectual level (above a certain minimum), socioeconomic status, and race. Their ease of administration, relative refractoriness to practice and to motivational variables recommend them for use in determining clinical status and especially for monitoring the effects of psychopharmacologic agents. This paper discusses a rationale for the importance of using measures of motility in assessing schizophrenic and other psychopathology. The presumed importance of motility lies in its critical role in the organization and control of many psychological processes including perception. Its role in monitoring effective and adaptive response to stimulus inputs, to executive intentions, and its central importance in regulation through feedback are emphasized. The involvement of the musculature in schizophrenia is underscored with reference to some significant research findings.

Overinclusive thinking and schizophrenia.

Summary The empirical literature relating to the schizophrenic thought disorder of overinclusive thinking is reviewed with special consideration to its measurement, the variables related to over-inclusive thought patterns, its relationship to other psychopathological groups, and the conditions under which schizophrenic conceptual performance is either facilitated or impaired. While a number of criticisms and suggestions are included in summary statements following each main section of the paper, it is suggested that future research stress conditions which improve rather than inhibit schizophrenic performance. Some studies in related areas are presented to illustrate the ability of schizophrenics to overcome their “psychological deficit”.

The relationship of alpha activity to attentional sets in schizophrenia.

Eleven hospitalized male schizophrenics and 10 male normal controls were tested in reaction time (RT) in eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings of alpha activity were made simultaneously. While the alpha wave state was found to have no systematic relationship with the presence of attentional sets as measured by RT, a number of potentially significant findings were obtained. 1) Unlike the great majority of reported findings which indicate that the performance of schizophrenics is inferior, there was no overall group difference on the RT task. 2) Schizophrenics performed better in the eyes-closed condition, while normals performed better in the eyes-open condition. 3) Eye condition was found to be a greater determinant of alpha state for schizophrenics than for normals. 4) Schizophrenics were found to perform best with the preparatory interval (PI) of intermediate value, while normals performed best with the longest PI. 5) The effect of the previous preparatory interval (PPI), so often noted in RT studies, was eliminated when PI effects were controlled.

Differences between correlates of perceptual style and Petrie task performance in chronic and acute schizophrenics.

Acute schizophrenics open to perceptual stimuli are receptive to emotional stimuli and are intellectually able. Conversely, chronics maintaining active internal lives are inattentive to external stimuli. The Petrie procedure appears uncorrelated with the Silverman KFA. Overestimation after Petrie large-stimulus interpolation relates to passive behavior; overestimation after small-stimulus interpolation relates to good intellectual and psychological functioning among all, and among chronics to behavioral and conceptual expansiveness.

Embedded figures performance of schizophrenics as a function of chronicity, premorbid adjustment, diagnosis, and medication.

Embedded figures performance of schizophrenics as a function of chronicity, premorbid adjustment, diagnosis, and medication.

EEG-Averaged Evoked Response and Perceptual Variability in Schizophrenics

PERCEPTUAL and cognitive studies of schizophrenic patients characteristically reveal great variability. Not only does the performance of schizophrenics on psychological tests typically cover a much broader response range than that of nonschizophrenics, but individual performance shows great variability across time. 1 By selecting representatives of two schizophrenic subtypes as subjects for this study, we hoped to reduce interindividual variability, thus enabling ourselves to observe intraindividual variability more clearly. The two subtypes, nonparanoid long-term process and paranoid short-term reactive, have clinical characteristics often thought to be consistently associated with markedly different perceptual behavior patterns. 1 To test the hypothesis that the two groups show contrasting perceptual patterns, two psychophysical tasks and an average evoked response (AER) measure were administered. In previous researches, a correlation was demonstrated in normal waking-state subjects between reponsiveness on a kinesthetic figural aftereffects (KFA) procedure and responsiveness on an AER

Humans as reinforcing stimuli in schizophrenic performance.

Humans as reinforcing stimuli in schizophrenic performance.

Correlations between the IQs Of Schizophrenic Parents and Their Children

Correlations were obtained between the IQs of children of schizophrenics and the childhood IQs of their parents. No relationship was found between the IQs of children and those of their schizophrenic parents but a significant and normal correlation was found between the IQ scores of these children and those of their nonschizophrenic parents. Because of the latter finding, it was concluded that the lack of correlation between the IQs of children and their schizophenic parents was due to the erratic test performance of schizophrenics, occurring long before the recognized onset of their disorder, rather than that of their children.