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)     

Managed care: Hidden benefits or delusional thinking?

Comments on the article by Anonymous (see record 1995-33982-001) which presents the hidden benefits of managed care. The current author contends that the hidden benefits touted by Anonymous are "largely illusory or are benefits only from the perspective of the technically inept, lonely, naive, or deluded practitioner." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delusions and delusional reasoning.

In 2 studies, delusional participants assigned higher probabilities to narratives of actual delusions than participants with no history of delusions; previously delusional participants did not differ significantly from delusional participants or participants with no history of delusions. In Study 2, the authors found that this reasoning bias was specific to delusions and did not generalize to neutral text. Familiarity with the content of the delusional narratives played a mediating role in the estimation of their probability, but delusional status also had a significant, independent effect. These findings are consistent with the Bayesian model of delusion formation proposed by D. R. Hemsley and P. A. Garety (1986), and with R. P. Bentall, P. Kinderman, and S. Kaney's (1994) concept of emotional saliency. A productive area of future research might be to further determine the elements of emotional saliency and their impact on the individual steps of the Bayesian model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coding of cognitive input in delusional patients.

Constructed a manual for categorizing themes present in delusions, using interviews of a group of 6 females and 8 males representative of 68 currently delusional patients. Interjudge reliability for the manual's categories ranged from .73 to .93. A cognitive congruence hypothesis, which predicted that dominant themes in an S's delusional material would match the dominant categories used to construct his reality, was supported. The reality constructs obtained from 54 Ss on a Logical Consequences Test were significantly correlated with the dominant delusional themes. Moreover, males perceived significantly more negative interpersonal pressure, whereas females perceived significantly more negative sexual pressure. Both also perceived more negative pressure coming from the environment rather than from within, whereas a control group of 31 normal Ss did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathic ability in normals and schizophrenics.

"Normals and schizophrenics were asked to predict on a rating scale the responses of three Ss: an associate, a normal, and a psychotic, the latter two persons known only through an observed interview situation. Individuals in each group had previously made self-ratings in terms of the same scale. Deviation scores for members of each group provided a measure of accuracy of prediction (empathy) and the tendency to assume a similarity between oneself and another person (assumed similarity). The control group revealed generally greater empathic ability and greater assumed similarity than did the schizophrenic group." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurement and modification of delusional beliefs.

It has been proposed that delusional thinking may be on a continuum with normal behavior and can be assessed by taking account of factors such as the client's degree of belief conviction or the extent of preoccupation with the belief. In our research a number of measures were used to assess the delusional thinking of people diagnosed as schizophrenic. Two interventions were used: (a) a structured verbal challenge and (b) a reality test in which the belief was subject to an empirical test. We used a multiple baseline, across-subjects design. Of the 6 clients, 2 completely rejected their beliefs, and 3 others significantly reduced their belief conviction. Maintenance was good, and there was evidence that the intervention had enabled 5 of the 6 clients to effectively regulate their delusional thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrodermal lability in delusional schizophrenics following personalized stimuli.

Presented a series of phrases to 10 male hospitalized paranoid schizophrenics and 10 male alcoholic controls while their electrodermal responses were recorded. The topics of the phrases were delusion-related, alcohol-related, or neutral. No main effect difference between the groups was found. However, the topic of the phrases affected the groups differently: Delusion-related and neutral stimuli produced greater lability in schizophrenics than in alcoholics. Results suggest that these schizophrenics responded to significant stimuli much like nonschizophrenics but differed from nonschizophrenics as to which stimuli they found significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two types of conditioning in psychotics and normals.

The conditionality of 2 groups of schizophrenics (chronic paranoids and chronic nonparanoids) and a normal (male nurses) was tested via 2 methods of conditioning: visual (stimulus)—eyelid (response), and auditory (stimulus)—handpress (response). The results indicated no difference between the groups re: eyelid conditioning, but the paranoid group took significantly longer to condition on the verbal procedure. Suggested reasons for the results are discussed, and the results are compared with that of previous research. 18 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word association repertoires of schizophrenics and normals.

The work association repertoires of 3 association responses of 20 poor and 20 good premorbid nonparanoid schizophrenics were not more deviant than those of 20 normals. There was significantly greater commonality in the 1st association response than in the 2nd response which, in turn, showed greater commonality than the 3rd response. These results suggest that schizophrenic language disorders are not due to overall language deficiency and partially support the disturbance viewpoint. A 3rd viewpoint is proposed, based on a 2-stage process involving nondeviant associations with inadequate cognitive controls as differentiating schizophrenics from normals. The hierarchical order for frequency given by the Russell-Jenkins norms obtains for both discrete and extended word association responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall in normals and subnormals of like mental age.

Normal children and young adult imbeciles were matched for mental age and were given sets of 6 pairs of words to learn by association. The words were recorded on tape, and presented to subgroups at a sound intensity of 90 db. or 55 db. Each subgroup was further subdivided—? the Ss being given 10 and ? given 20 repetitions. 1 minute, 2 days, and 1 month later they heard the stimulus word of each pair and were asked to give the appropriate response word. It was shown that there was no difference in learning or memory scores between normals and imbeciles. Frequency of presentation affected immediate recall scores of both groups, with intensity level contributing to a lesser degree. Memory over longer time intervals was determined by the amount initially learned, rather than by the conditions under which such learning had occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impression management ability in psychiatric hospital samples and normals.

As a partial test of the view that schizophrenia is essentially a manipulatory phenomenon, the abilities of normal, neurotic, alcoholic-character disorder, and single and married schizophrenic groups (N = 180) to manage the impressions they make on others were compared. Ss were administered a semistructured interview twice-once each under instructions to make as bad and as good impressions as possible. All groups proved capable of managing the impressions they made to some degree. However, the single schizophrenics produced higher scores than any of the patient samples. Results argue against the hypothesis that schizophrenics are peculiarly capable impression managers. Moreover, the impression management scores of the groups did not change differentially in response to threat, casting some doubt on the view that schizophrenics are peculiarly inclined to produce spurious abnormal behavior to escape painful stress. Results contradict the view that the behaviors characterized as schizophrenic arise from special impression management tendencies rather than cognitive deficits. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proverb word counts as a measure of overinclusiveness in delusional schizophrenics.

A partial replication was conducted of Payne's (1964) report concerning the relationship between delusions and overinclusive thinking as measured by proverbs word counts. Word counts were made of Gorham Proverbs Test responses given by age and intelligence-matched groups of 21 delusional schizophrenics, 21 nondelusional schizophrenics, and 21 nonschizophrenic, nondelusional psychiatric in-patients. 23 paranoid, 23 nonparanoid, and 23 nonschizophrenic control Ss, similarly matched, from the same population, were also compared. No significant differences in proverb word counts were found among the groups. Although the possibility of increased irrelevant side remarks could not be excluded, paranoid or delusional schizophrenics do not produce higher proverb relevant word counts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

GSR conditioning and personality factors in alcoholics and normals.

Alcoholic and nonalcoholic introversive and extroversive Ss were placed in a GSR conditioning situation. Significant differences in conditionability were not found between alcoholics and the nonalcoholic group with regard to the intro-extroversion dimension. The results were seen as confirming aspects of Eysenck's (1957) theory of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization in memory: A comparison of psychotics and normals.

15 acute schizophrenics, 11 acute psychotic depressives, and 15 normal Ss completed a multitrial free-recall task. The 30 to-be-remembered nouns from 6 conceptual categories were printed, 1 on each card. During self-paced presentation, the nouns were sorted into S-determined categories. Patient recall was inferior. The extent to which successive categorizations of the words during sorting were similar and reflected norms of category membership was measured. No significant group differences were realized. Patient recall clustering, defined both by norms of category membership and subjective sorting categorizations, was inferior. On no measure did schizophrenics and depressives differ. Results indicate that with lists of relatively high semantic content, the recall impairment displayed by schizophrenics and depressives stems mainly from an inability to completely use perceived structuring of the list during recall. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counterfactual thinking.

Counterfactuals are mental representations of alternatives to the past and produce consequences that are both beneficial and aversive to the individual. These apparently contradictory effects are integrated into a functionalist model of counterfactual thinking. The author reviews research in support of the assertions that (a) counterfactual thinking is activated automatically in response to negative affect, (b) the content of counterfactuals targets particularly likely causes of misfortune, (c) counterfactuals produce negative affective consequences through a contrast-effect mechanism and positive inferential consequences through a causal-inference mechanism, and (d) the net effect of counterfactual thinking is beneficial. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative interference in the verbal learning performance of schizophrenics and normals.

Groups of recently admitted VA schizophrenics and VA nonpsychiatric patients (17 per group) were given 1 of 2 paired-associate lists. The experimental list consisted of pairs in which each stimulus had a minimal assocative connection with its response but was highly associated with another response on the list, as judged by word association norms. Comparisons of performance on this list with that on a parallel control list indicated that the presence of the cross-associates resulted in significant performance decrement (p     

Affective evaluation in the verbal learning styles of normals and abnormals.

Reports 3 studies on the influence of idiographic affective judgments of likability on the learning of CVC trigram materials among a total of 36 normals and 68 abnormals. The construct under study was termed reinforcement value (RV). It was hypothesized that whereas normals have been shown to acquire materials they judge to be positive more readily than those they judge to be negative in RV, an "RV-reversal" should be the case for abnormals. Findings on abnormals (primarily schizophrenics) were not unequivocably in line with an RV-reversal effect, but there was evidence in cross-validation to suggest that an abnormal learning style places less emphasis on acquisition of liked over disliked materials. A theory of learning based upon tautology is presented as explanatory of the findings. (28 ref.) (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)     

Visual perception of sequential numerosity by normals and retardates.

Presented sequences of 2-10 50-msec light flashes at interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 msec. for multiple- and single-locus conditions to 20 educable retardates and 20 equal MA normals. Numerosity discrimination of the younger, normal children was more accurate at all ISIs (p     

Evaluative feedback and aspiration statements of schizophrenics and normals.

Elicited aspiration statements from 30 male schizophrenics and 30 normal adult males in 3 treatment conditions: response-contingent praise, response-contingent censure, and no evaluation. Task "performance scores" were predetermined by E and were identical for all Ss. 2 dependent measures were examined: frequency of increased aspiration statements and magnitude of aspiration changes compared with prior "performance." Response-contingent censure resulted in greater frequency of increased aspiration statements for both diagnostic groups. However, censure differentially effected the magnitude of performance-aspiration differences, with schizophrenics showing greater magnitude of response. Results support previous findings on attitudes of schizophrenics and normals toward success and failure and are congruent with theories of schizophrenic behavior emphasizing development of withdrawal patterns to avoid punishment. It is also indicated that schizophrenics' sensitivity to the aversive may be used constructively. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)