Poor Premorbid Schizophrenics Research Articles

Perceptual organization in schizophrenia: the processing of symmetrical configurations.

The hypothesis that the perceptual organization dysfunction of patients with poor premorbid schizophrenia is due to a deficit in global visual sensory store processing was tested by assessing their ability to process symmetrical configurations that develop early and have strong prepotent structures. Two same-different judgment tasks in which performance varies as a function of the symmetrical organization and task demands were administered to participants with good and poor premorbid schizophrenia, those with mood disorders, and normal controls. Like the other groups, poor premorbid schizophrenics' latency and error response patterns closely paralled the a priori model of adequate processing. The results support their competence in perceptually processing symmetrical configurations and disconfirm the hypothesis that their input deficiencies represent a general deficiency in all forms of perceptual organization. The implications for specifying their early input dysfunction are discussed.

Abnormalities of sentence production in schizophrenia

premorbid schizophrenics, and 14 acutely ill psychotic nonschizophrenics. Patterns of reaction time across conditions revealed a perceptual organization dysfunction in 71% of inpatient poor premorbid schizophrenics and 40% of outpatient poor premorbid schizophrenics. This performance pattern was not observed in any good premorbid schizophrenics or psychotic nonschizophrenics. Examination of accuracy rates indicated that all schizophrenic groups demonstrated mild impairments in PO. These data suggest that: !) the sensory register of schizophrenics is performing an adequate segregation of the stimulus field, although to a lesser extent than is the case among psychotic nonschizophrenics; 2) salient configural properties of stimuli do not drive response execution processes for poor premorbid schizophrenics, whereas good premorbid schizophrenics and other psychotic patients are efficient in their use of these cues; 3) poor premorbid schizophrenics' impairment in utilizing relevant cues in response organization is present among remitted patients, but is more prevalent in acutely ill patients. These data support the view that a perceptual organization dysfunction is specific to poor premorbid schizophrenic patients, and that it is most pronounced during acute psychotic episodes. Moreover, the inadequacy of response organization in the context of only mildly impaired target detection is consistent with a frontal lobe origin of this deficit.

Modification of chronic schizophrenics' abstractions through enriched stimuli and social censure.

Examined the abstracting abilities of good and poor premorbid chronic schizophrenics on single and multiple proverbs, as well as the effects of censure on each group. Two groups of 16 Ss each, comparable in terms of education, IQ and age, were presented with single and multiple sets of proverbs in two sessions and were asked to give the meanings of the proverbs. Half of each group received immediate negative verbal feedback when their performance fell below criteria. Both groups showed significant improvement in the multiple proverb condition. There was also a significant Group X Censure interaction. It is suggested that good premorbids may suffer more from interference in processing stimuli, while poor premorbids suffer more from interference in response selection or from a motivational deficit.

Overinclusion, broad scanning, and picture recognition in schizophrenics.

Difficulty of picture and word recognition was manipulated to test the hypothesis that schizophrenics have adequate recognition memories and to determine whether overinclusion is related to a good visual recognition memory. Good and poor premorbid, acute and chronic schizophrenics were compared to nonpsychotic psychiatric patients and to hospital aides. Both Payne's Object Classification Test and Goldstein-Scheerer's Object Sorting Test were given to all the patients, but only the former differentiated among the diagnostic subgroups and was related to good picture memory. When the measures of overinclusion, chronicity, premorbidity and intelligence were used as independent variables in a multiple regression, only Payne NonA predicted success on the picture task. Good premorbid schizophrenics recognized pictures as well as normals and nonpsychotics, but poor premorbids' picture memory was significantly worse. No experimental variable predicted word performance in a multiple regression, and good premorbids did not differ from poor premorbids on their word recognition. The authors favored the interpretation that the pattern of performance of overinclusive schizophrenics reflects their tendency to scan broadly both important and unimportant features of stimuli.

Changes in schizophrenics' word association commonalities durigh hospitalization.

Good premorbid (GP) schizophrenics have been found to have higher word association commonality scores than poor premorbid (PP) schizophrenics when both groups had been hospitalized over 5 years but not with shorter hospitalizations. There has been no previous study of changes in commonality in schizophrenics from beginning to end of hospitalization. The present study was a longitudinal investigation of word association commonality in GP and PP schizophrenics from admission to discharge from the hospital and at 3-month follow-up. Subjects were 16 GP and 16 PP schizophrenics. The two groups were equal in age, education, intelligence, and length of hospitalization. Commonality scores consisted of number of common responses to 50 Kent-Rosanoff stimulus words. GP and PP groups were not significantly different in commonality at admission, discharge, or follow-up. The combined groups showed a significant (p less than .01) increase in commonality from admission to discharge but no further change from discharge to follow-up. Taken separately, the GP group showed a significant increase in commonality from admission to discharge (p less than .02), while the PP difference was not statistically significant. The change in the GP group was significantly greater than in the PP group (p less than .05, one-tailed test). These results suggest that schizophrenics' word association commonalities may increase with improvement in clinical status and that GP schizophrenics show greater increases than PP schizophrenics.

The effects of response contingent parental reinforcement upon schizophrenics' learning

Forty schizophrenic and 40 non-schizophrenic male psychiatric inpatients, matched for age, intelligence, and social competence, were administered equivalent form nonsense syllable discrimination tasks under each of four conditions: an initial baseline information feedback condition, two response contingent reinforcement conditions, and a final baseline information feedback condition. Subjects of both diagnostic groups were further divided into eight groups of ten patients each. Half the groups received praise and half received censure during the response contingent conditions. In counterbalanced order, the reinforcing agent was the experimenter in one condition and a recorded voice of one of the parents in the other. Half received the mother's and half received the father's voice. Schizophrenics responded faster under experimenter than under parent reinforcement. Poor premorbid schizophrenics, making more errors than goods, responded faster under experimenter as opposed to parent reinforcement. Among non-schizophrenics, education, social competence, and I.Q. were all negatively correlated with response latency and number of errors. Among schizophrenics, the higher the I.Q., the fewer the errors and the shorter the response latency, except when such subjects were reinforced by their parents. Then no significant relationship existed. Marital status, however, was significantly related to performance, with unmarried status positively correlated with slower response to parents. All subjects responded more quickly and accurately in the final than in the first baseline condition regardless of diagnosis or interpolated reinforcement experiences. Data were interpreted as providing limited support for the social censure hypothesis of Garmezy and his colleagues, but as consistent with recent formulations concerning the schizophrenic patient in relation to his family.

Sensitivity to syntactic structure: Good versus poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Sensitivity to syntactic structure: Good versus poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Sensitivity to syntactic structure: good versus poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Sensitivity to syntactic structure: good versus poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Regression in schizophrenics as a function of censure, reinforcement cues, and response habit hierarchies.

Abstract Three types of regressive behavior (temporal, nonspecific, and withdrawal) were experimentally defined. The effects of censure, response hierarchy, and reinforcement upon the three types of regression in good and poor premorbid schizophrenics were tested. Results indicated that censure increased only withdrawal regression in both good and poor premorbid Ss, but that poor premorbid Ss showed more of an immediate response deficit following censure. No differences in response hierarchy were found. Initial nonreinforcement of dominant responses increased both temporal and non-specific regression. The results are discussed in relation to theories which postulate increased drive as an important variable in schizophrenic regression.

The effects of white noise and message repetition on proverb interpretation in good and poor premorbid schizophrenics.

The effects of white noise and message repetition on proverb interpretation in good and poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Autonomic Arousal in Good and Poor Premorbid Schizophrenics

Measurements of heart rate and palmar skin potential were obtained from good and poor premorbid schizophrenics and from normal subjects during rest and during the performance of two psychomotor tasks. Analysis of the data was concerned with level of arousal and with variability in the level of arousal with changes in the experimental situation. It was found that poor premorbid schizophrenics show moderately high, invariant levels of arousal as previously reported in the case of chronic schizophrenics. Good premorbid schizophrenics also appeared to be over‐aroused relative to normals but did not show the invariance characteristic of poor premorbid schizophrenics.

Short-term prognosis of schizophrenic patients.

IN THE past decade there has been an increase in interest concerning factors which relate to or predict the prognosis of hospitalized schizophrenic patients. One aspect of their prognosis is posthospital adjustment, and it has received extensive attention in the recent literature. Another aspect of the prognosis of schizophrenic patients which has received far less attention is length of hospitalization. Detailed information on what variables predict length of hospitalization would be of both theoretical and practical importance. In relation to theory, data concerning the prognosis of schizophrenics, based on their posthospital adjustment, have been of value in increasing our understanding of schizophrenia. Formulations about good and poor premorbid schizophrenics,^1,2and related (but not identical) ones about process and reactive schizophrenics³are based in part on research on such prognostic factors. In addition, research on prognosis which has been used to support formulations about the

"Commonality and stability of word association responses in good and poor premorbid schizophrenics": Erratum.

"Commonality and stability of word association responses in good and poor premorbid schizophrenics": Erratum.

COMMONALITY AND STABILITY OF WORD ASSOCIATION RESPONSES IN GOOD AND POOR PREMORBID SCHIZOPHRENICS.

COMMONALITY AND STABILITY OF WORD ASSOCIATION RESPONSES IN GOOD AND POOR PREMORBID SCHIZOPHRENICS.