Effects of social deprivation and satiation on the reinforcing properties of social stimulation in chronic male hospitalized schizophrenics.

Hypothesized that (a) pre-experimental social deprivation will lead to an increase in the reinforcing properties of social stimulation, and (b) pre-experimental social satiation will lead to a decrease in the reinforcing properties of social stimulation. Ss were 16 chronic male 38-59 yr old schizophrenics. Ss in the social deprivation groups were isolated for 45 min before they were given a simple marble-dropping task. Ss in the social satiation groups received a 10-min undemanding conversation with E before each experimental session. Social contact with E was significantly more often sought than avoided following 45 min of social deprivation, whereas social contact was avoided significantly more often following 10 min of social satiation. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of biological and social motivation on schizophrenic reaction time.

Reaction times of schizophrenic and normal Ss were determined under instructions to respond as fast as possible to a buzzer signal. Half of the Ss were retested immediately under the same conditions, while the other half were shocked on the responding finger simultaneously with the buzzer. Schizophrenics' RTs improved significantly under shock conditions. Disturbances in schizophrenic RT are "partially accounted for by defective social motivation and… a biological deficit may be involved in the reactions of more chronic schizophrenics." 21 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus and social cues in concept identification of schizophrenics and normals.

162 Ss were tested to investigate the effects of combinations of stimulus and social cues on concept identification (CI) of normals and schizophrenics. 6 major conditions were designed to evaluate positive and negative effects of these cues. Social cues inhibited CI when they were randomly reinforced in contrast to the effect of the nonreinforced stimulus cues. Inhibitive effect of social cues had greater influence than its positive effect for both populations. When both social and stimulus cues were reinforced, CI performance did not differ from conditions when only one or the other of these cues was reinforced. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of parental childrearing and subsequent vulnerability to cognitive distu bance.

Research with normals and schizophrenics has indicated the importance of maternal childrearing control and nurturance. The 1st experiment tested whether patterns of maternal control and nurturance would relate to the son's subsequent cognitive performance under conditions involving social censure. Ss were 63 college males. Ss rating their mothers as highly controlling-low nurturant (rejecting pattern) were poorer in conceptual performance than Ss whose mothers were rated as low controlling-highly nurturant (accepting pattern). The same results were obtained when 74 males were divided into paternal childrearing pattern groups and their conceptual performance compared. It was proposed that social censure elicits responses which interfere with effective cognitive performance in Ss whose rejecting childrearing histories have mediated low self-esteem. (1 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constancy of absolute judgments of size by normals and schizophrenics.

A study of size constancy in absolute judgments of chronic schizophrenics and normals under conditions of minimal distance cues showed a significant and consistent underestimation by schizophrenic Ss. The apparently inconsistent results from other studies of size and temporal constancy in schizophrenics were discussed and a hypothesis advanced which related the various findings as a function of loss of reality contact. Schizophrenics in good contact show stable overconstancy. Acutely disturbed schizophrenics show a loss of perceptual stability. Chronic schizophrenics have re-established perceptual stability through autistic frames of reference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal and extradimensional shifts in abstract and concrete schizophrenics.

72 concrete schizophrenics, defined in terms of conceptual sorting difficulties, were trained under 1 of 3 discrimination-learning conditions: reversal (R) shift, extradimensional (ED) shift, or control. 72 abstract schizophrenics were similarly divided, 1/2 of the Ss in each condition received verbal reinforcement, and 1/2 received candy reinforcement. Results indicated that concrete Ss required significantly more trials to learn the shift concepts than abstract Ss. Both R and ED shifts produced negative transfer relative to control conditions, but there was no significant difference between the 2 shift conditions. No differential effect was attributable to the different reinforcers. Results were discussed in terms of 2-stage discrimination-learning models and Goldstein's theory of schizophrenic concreteness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of censure on schizophrenic reaction time: Critique and reformulation of the Garmezy censure-deficit model.

80 male schizophrenics and 40 male nonpsychiatric patients performed a reaction time task in which 40 Ss heard a tone after randomly selected trials and the other Ss heard the tone only after trials on which their response was slower than their baseline reaction times. Half of the Ss were told that the tone was a meaningless sound, while the others were told that the tone meant their response had been too slow on the last trial. Censure instructions improved the reaction times of all Ss, regardless of whether the tone was in fact contingent upon poor performance. This result is contrary to predictions from N. Garmezy's 1966 censure-deficit model and requires a reformulation of this model. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal conditioning of middle and lower socioeconomic class schizophrenics.

An experiment with 140 male VA hospital patients assessed the verbal conditioning of middle and lower socioeconomic class schizophrenics and normals under conditions of social reinforcement. Ss were reinforced with a positive or negative word said in a positive, negative, or neutral tone of voice. Social class moderated diagnostic group differences in learning. Combining social classes, schizophrenics learned less than normals with reinforcement entailing incongruent word and tone but were equivalent to normals with congruent word/tone reinforcement pairs (i.e., positive word/positive tone and negative word/negative tone). Results are interpreted in terms of the double-bind theory of G. Bateson et al (1956), which views schizophrenic behavior as a response acquired after prolonged exposure to inconsistent patterns of verbal and nonverbal communication. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Praise and censure as motivating variables in the motor behavior and learning of schizophrenics.

Hullian assumptions regarding drive level were utilized to predict the performance of acute and chronic schizophrenics on learning tasks of varying complexity. Ss were exposed to 3 conditions of reinforcement: censure, praise, and neutral (neither censure nor praise), and faced with simple and complex learning tasks. Acute schizophrenics responded differently from the chronic Ss to the conditions of reinforcement. The performance of the acute group was facilitated on the 2nd task by the experience of being told they were wrong on the 1st; this was not so with the chronic schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reinforcement of verbal affect responses of normal subjects during the interview.

"Twenty-six normal individuals, hospitalized for a variety of physical complaints, were interviewed for a period of 30 minutes. Each interview consisted of a 10-minute operant level period, during which E asked questions necessary to maintain S's talk but did not otherwise respond to S's speech; 10 minutes of conditioning, during which E reinforced by agreement all self-referred affect statements; and 10 minutes of extinction, during which E withheld all reinforcement. Conditioning of the verbal response class of self-referred affect statements occurred, and normal Ss showed greater resistance to extinction than did schizophrenics." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improvement in the performance of schizophrenics on concept formation tasks as a function of motivational change.

108 schizophrenics and 36 normal Ss were divided into a noise and a control group and matched for intelligence. Concept formation tests involving social and formal concepts were then administered under the experimental conditions. "Under the conditions of escape from aversive stimuli [white noise], schizophrenics who took the concept formation tests under the usual conditions of psychological testing performed at a level both inferior to and significantly differentiated from the normals and the more motivated schizophrenics." 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of social and nonsocial censure on stimulus generalization in neurotics and schizophrenics.

36 schizophrenic and 36 neurotic depressive Ss were given a visual-spatial generalization task under either social or nonsocial (impersonal) censure conditions. The following hypotheses derived from previous investigations were tested: (1) schizophrenics would show higher gradients of generalization than neurotic depressives, and (2) generalization gradients would be higher under conditions of social as opposed to nonsocial censure, especially in schizophrenics. The data supported Hypothesis 1 but not Hypothesis 2. There was no evidence for differential responding between these 2 groups with respect to either stimulus generalization or response to censure. It was suggested that hypotheses concerning the schizophrenic's performance in these 2 situations have been biased and oversimplified by use of normal, rather than patient, control groups in previous investigations. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of multiple models on the behavior of institutionalized retarded children: increased generalization to other models and other behaviors

After being pretested to determine base levels of imitation, 32 9-14 yr old retarded children were reinforced for imitating a model in 9 training sessions. Ss in a single model condition were reinforced by the same model across all sessions, whereas Ss in a multiple model condition were reinforced by 3 different models (3 sessions per model). A posttest to assess levels of imitation was then conducted by a model with whom the Ss had not had contact and who demonstrated a new set of behaviors. Results during training sessions show that (a) Ss learned to imitate, and this learning was not inhibited by multiple models; and (b) Ss generalized and imitated nonreinforced behaviors, and this response generalization was facilitated by multiple models. Most importantly, pre-posttest comparisons indicated that generalized use of the new response class (imitation) with new models was 8 times greater for Ss trained with multiple as opposed to single models. Implications for the maintenance and generalized effectiveness of social intervention programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic cognitive deficit as a function of scoring standards.

Describes 3 experiments in which the responses of normal Ss (mostly prison inmates and firefighters) and of schizophrenics to the Stanford Binet Test Vocabulary items, the WAIS Vocabulary items, and the WAIS Similarities items were scored by 2 methods, one relatively strict and the other relatively lenient. Subtests of strictly and leniently scored items from each of the 3 sources were matched for normal Ss on psychometric characteristics that determine power of the test to distinguish the more able from the less able Ss. A greater deficit on the strictly scored than on the leniently scored items was found for chronic schizophrenics on the Stanford-Binet Vocabulary, for newly admitted schizophrenics but not for chronic schizophrenics on the WAIS Vocabulary, and for neither group on the WAIS Similarities. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Critical interstimulus interval in delusional schizophrenics and normals.

The critical interstimulus interval, the minimum interval between presentation of a test and mask stimulus at which the mask no longer interferes with processing of the test stimulus, was calculated for 10 schizophrenics with delusional symptoms and 10 normal college students. All Ss had previous experience with the masking procedure. Each S's critical interstimulus interval was obtained 4 times in 4 separate sessions. Results indicate a larger critical interstimulus inteval for the schizophrenics. All Ss also showed less masking with practice. Results are consistent with A. J. Yates's (see record 1966-05514-001) hypothesis of a schizophrenic deficit prior to cortical levels of information processing but were inconsistent with A. J. Yates and P. Korboot's (see record 1971-06730-001) findings that slow information processing is unique to chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics. Post hoc analysis suggests the possibility of an additional schizophrenic deficit in preattentive filtering. Directions for future research are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal operant conditioning of hospitalized psychiatric patients.

In Exp. I, 81 male psychiatric patients were divided into 9 subgroups according to age and length of hospitalization. Plural nouns were reinforced by positive verbal feedback. Results were: (1) least chronic Ss increased their operant rates; (2) most chronic Ss did not; and (3) there was significant interaction with respect to age and chronicity. In Exp. II, 60 schizophrenics were divided into 6 subgroups with respect to length of hospitalization and mode of reinforcement, i.e., verbal, primary, or combination. Acute-type schizophrenics responded positively to all types of reinforcement. Chronics responded only to primary reinforcement and to the combination procedure. Mode of reinforcement was a significant variable affecting operant rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions of chronic schizophrenics to symptomatic behavior in others.

Presented videotaped scenes in which actors depicted depressed, hallucinatory, agitated, and asymptomatic behavior to 60 chronic and acute schizophrenics and normal Ss. Ss were administered a questionnaire measuring attributed symptomatology and credibility, and affiliation desire. The overall results reveal that all Ss differentiated among the categories and perceived the actors as falling along a sick–well dimension. Chronic patients expressed a greater desire to affiliate, though this was related to the level of symptomatology exhibited by the actor. The credibility of all the actors was consistently high for chronic patients only. Suggestions for increasing the social behaviors of chronic patients are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention, breadth of attention, and shifting attention in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics

Compared the performance of 16 normals (hospital employees), 16 chronic schizophrenics, and 16 hospitalized alcoholics in a reaction time task with simultaneous presentation of 2 stimuli and the offset of 1 stimulus as the signal. The stimuli were either of 1 or 2 different modalities, and the signal was known or was not known to the Ss in advance. The data were analyzed according to 2 different models of attentional deficit in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics. No empirical support could be found for W. E. Broen's (1973) model, which attributes the difficulties that chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics experience in tasks with stimuli of different sense modalities to narrowed attention. On the other hand, M. W, Kristofferson's (see PA, Vol 42:958) findings on slower attentional shifts in chronic schizophrenics could be replicated. As an extension of her work, it is shown that this slower shifting process is confined to cross-modal shifts—no differences being found between normals, chronic schizophrenics, and alcoholics in ipsimodal shifts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concept identification by schizophrenic and normal subjects as a function of problem complexity and relevance of social cues.

Schizophrenic and normal Ss (N = 230) solved concept-identification (CI) problems varying in stimulus complexity, simultaneously with either a normal or a schizophrenic stooge providing relevant or irrelevant cues. Major results were (1) CI performance was a negative function of stimulus complexity, (2) social cues from a normal stooge had greater effects on problem solving than social cues from a schizophrenic stooge, and (3) schizophrenics demonstrated a deficit in problem solving connected primarily with the use of social cues. Comparisons of these data with expectations based on a mathematical model of CI revealed several significant discrepancies, attributable primarily to the fact that normals are more sensitive to social cues than are schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scales for physical and social anhedonia

Devised 2 true–false scales to measure anhedonia, the lowered ability to experience pleasure: a 40-item Physical Anhedonia (PA) scale and a 48-item Social Anhedonia (SA) scale. After scale development using 371 college students, the final version was given to 505 normal adults stratified by social class, age (18–45), and sex, and to 123 male schizophrenics. The potential artifacts of social desirability, acquiescence, and random responding were ruled out. Coefficient alpha values for PA and for SA were .74 and .85 for male normal Ss and .82 and .85 for male schizophrenics. Schizophrenics scored more anhedonic than normal Ss on both PA and SA. Schizophrenics' scores on PA fell into 2 clusters of scores, one resembling the total distribution of the normal Ss, and a 2nd cluster consisting of scores that were more anhedonic than those of the normal Ss. Anhedonics were more often poor premorbid and hedonics more often good premorbid. The PA scale may be useful for testing the hypotheses, advanced by several theorists, that anhedonia is genetically transmitted and that nonpsychotic anhedonics are at high risk for schizophrenia. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)