Hypnotic susceptibility of schizophrenic patients.

Clinical lore and much of the previous literature has maintained that schizophrenics are far less susceptible to hypnosis than are normals. A few studies have reported success with hypnotizing schizophrenics, but have lacked a methodology which would permit comparison with normal Ss to be made. In this study, 26 Ss with a hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia were given the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale—a verbatim induction technique and rating scale for which data on a normal, standardization group is available. The Ss gave results much like the normal group. Reasons for the difference between this and previous findings are discussed, including the hypothesis that previous workers found schizophrenics to be different in hypnotizability from normals because they treated them differently than they would normals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shape constancy: Functional relationships and theoretical formulations.

In the 1st section empirical findings concerning shape constancy are reviewed under 10 headings: The Occurrence of Compromise, Conditions of Observation, Degree of Orientation, Observation Attitude, Familiarity and Representativeness. Differences Between Forms, Individual Differences and Individual Consistency, The Effects of the Background, Movement, Exposure Time and Intensity. The 2nd section deals with several theoretical accounts of shape constancy. The shape-slant invariance hypothesis is evaluated in the light of the experimental evidence and is judged to be equivocal. A line of investigation is proposed which might reconcile the experimental data with the requirements of this hypothesis. The final section of the paper considers the methodological precautions which need to be observed in experimentation on apparent shape and apparent slant. (54 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between self-esteem and sensory (perceptual) constancy.

This study explored the relationship between self-esteem and sensory constancy, as measured by the perception of shape. 85 preadolescent males, representing 5 types of self-esteem, were individually asked to match a geometric shape with 1 of a graded series of rectangles. The procedure was intended to elicit judgments in accord with sensory rather than phenomenal constancy. These judgments were obtained under stress and nonstress orientations. The results, indicating that persons high in their estimates of personal worth are better able to attain sensory constancy, were limited to the stress condition. It is hypothesized that persons high in self-esteem can adapt more appropriately to instructions and adopt an analytic attitude excluding distracting stimuli. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental manipulation of continuous speech in schizophrenic patients.

A method was developed for obtaining extended continuous speech samples from hospitalized schizophrenics. 1 group was reinforced for self-referred affect statements, 1 group for speech in general, and 1 group served as a no-reinforcement control. The effect of reinforcement proved specific to the response class reinforced, whether narrow (self-referred affect statements) or more general (total speech output). The conditioning process progresses from broad classes to the particular one on which reinforcement is contingent. The problem of respons-class identification and other implications of the findings are discussed. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overinclusive thinking and delusions in schizophrenic patients.

15 schizophrenics with paranoid delusions, 15 schizophrenics with no delusions, and a control group of 15 nonschizophrenic hospitalized patients were given the Benjamin Proverbs test, the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale, and 3 of Babcock's psychomotor speed tests. As predicted, there was a significant relationship between the presence or absence of delusions, and overinclusive thinking, as assessed by the average number of words needed to explain the proverbs and 2 time scores. Overinclusive patients tend to have paranoid delusions. There was no significant relationship between retardation, as assessed by the Babcock tests, and the presence of delusions. This finding complements an earlier finding of Harris and Metcalfe (see 32: 719) that slowness in schizophrenic patients is specifically associated with inappropriate affect and a poor prognosis, and Payne's (see 37: 5499) finding that a group of chronic schizophrenics was not overinclusive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of role dominance and conflict in parents of schizophrenic patients.

By making observations of husband-wife interaction in an experimental setting, ratings of dominance of one parent over the other and degree of conflict could be obtained directly rather than inferred. Such ratings could be compared to data regarding the status of their children. Schizophrenic children with good and poor premorbid adjustment were compared with a comparable group of children hospitalized for tuberculosis. Good premorbids and controls were found to be from paternal-dominated families whereas poor premorbids came from maternal-dominated families. Parents of schizophrenics displayed more conflicts than those of the controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and ego strength as predictors of response in schizophrenic patients.

Hypotheses, derived from existing psychological formulations of schizophrenia, that degree of manifest anxiety and ego strength would be positively related to response to treatment were examined in a sample of 50 male and 50 female first admission schizophrenics. Scales (Baron, 1953a; Taylor, 1953) purported to assess these variables did not predict treatment outcome for the combined groups. However, in analyses broken down by sex both predictors were significantly related to outcome criteria, but in consistently opposite directions for men and women. The markedly different results for men and women are interpreted in terms of the sex-role appropriateness of the behavior sampled by the predictor measures. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How shape constancy relates to drawing accuracy.

There is increasing evidence that the major source of drawing errors lies in the initial perception of the to-be-drawn object. In four experiments, the authors explore the relation between an artist's susceptibility to perceptual transformations, as measured by a simple shape constancy task, and drawing accuracy. The data reveal a robust negative relation between errors on the shape constancy task and drawing accuracy in general, and specifically the accuracy of the rendering of spatial relations. The data further suggest that the perceptual processes that lead to errors on the shape constancy task occur during the initial encoding of the stimuli. The authors conclude that the shape constancy task likely measures one's ability to overcome constructive perception processes that transform the retinal image into a final percept, and that this ability is necessary for the accurate rendering of objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of recent and remote frames of reference on temporal judgments of schizophrenic patients.

"46 schizophrenic patients were compared with 80 control Ss with respect to their estimation of one clock second's duration under long and short anchor conditions, where anchor represented the extreme duration in a series. In addition, the interaction of recent and more remote anchors was studied." The findings suggested that the schizophrenic is likely to overestimate the duration of a clock second and that they responded only to the pulling effect of immediate anchors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of age and privilege status to reaction time indices of schizophrenic motivation.

An experiment designed to investigate the relationship of age and ground privilege status to reaction time indices of biological, social and anxiety motivation in schizophrenic patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intralist similarity and verbal rote learning performance of schizophrenic and cortically damaged patients.

The hypotheses tested were that with increasing intralist similarity in the material to be learned schizophrenics would show more difficulty and cortically damaged organics less difficulty than a normal control group. 3 equated groups of hospital patients representing each classification were used. Each group was further subdivided into thirds representing different degrees of intralist similarity of meaning. The hypothesis that cortically damaged organics would show a less pronounced rate of increase in difficulty than normals was confirmed, but the first hypothesis was not. 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of thorazine on learning and retention in schizophrenic patients.

The effect of thorazine upon learning in schizophrenics was studied by the use of a word association task. The performance of patients receiving varying dosages of thorazine (from 100 to 800 mg/day) were compared with patients who were on placebo. Thorazine was seen to affect learning and retention negatively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size constancy in psychopathology.

Size-constancy judgments were made by 21 schizophrenics, 17 psychotically depressed, 16 hysterical character disordered patients, and 35 normal controls. Judgments were obtained for a neutral stimulus, a circle of light, under 4 experimental conditions which varied the number of distance cues available to S. The psychotic patients were more constant in all experimental conditions; all groups exhibited increasing constancy with increasing distance cues. Anchor effects were less for the controls and most marked in the schizophrenics and hysterical character disorders when distance cues were minimal. Results are interpreted as a function of an integrative defect in perception relating to psychosis rather than specific to schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that the psychotics are more sensitive to the information available whether or not such information leads to veridical perception. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object constancy in schizophrenia: the enhancement of symbolic objects and conceptual stability.

The hypothesis that symbolic value has a greater influence on size judgments made by schizophrenic patients than on those made by controls was confirmed. The hypothesis that paranoid schizophrenics show greater constriction in their judgments of the range of sizes was confirmed; however, the hypothesis that non-paranoid schizophrenics show greater fluidity in their range of judgments than do the controls was not confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multidimensional content-analysis system applied to the analysis of therapeutic technique in psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients.

Describes a 5-dimensional content-analysis system for the study of naturally occurring spoken discourse about sociopsychological aspects of human life in use in a long-term, atheoretic study of psychotherapy. The ways in which decisions concerning research methodology are determined by the long-term, atheoretic character of the research are discussed. Empirical findings are presented concerning the reliability of the system's coding categories, the consistency of therapist verbal behavior as measured by the content-analysis system, and the sensitivity of the system to differences in therapeutic technique related to difference in theoretical orientation. The exploratory analysis to isolate a variable related to an aspect of therapeutic outcome is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postdiction of the outcome of somatic therapy from the Rorschach records of schizophrenic patients.

The Rorschach protocols of 60 schizophrenic patients previously hospitalized were presented to 3 psychologists with the instructions to differentiate the 30 patients who had improved from the 30 who had not. The 4 factors of Conflict, Control, Flexibility, and Strength of Drive were selected and defined by the investigators together with the psychologists. Each patient was rated on a 5-point scale with the content analysis approach used primarily. The accuracy of all 3 psychologists in differentiating between the 2 groups of patients on all 4 of the factors was found to be significant beyond the .01% level of confidence according to the chisquare values obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of interpersonal involvement and affectiveness of content to the verbal communication of schizophrenic patients.

To analyze the effect of close interpersonal contact on the communication process of schizophrenics, 30 hospitalized male schizophrenics were asked to associate to TAT-like cards under 2 conditions of E-involvement. The condition of close personal contact was where E interviewed S directly, made use of personal pronouns, and at-attempted to promote a relatively close relationship; the condition of remote personal contact was where S received nonpersonalized instructions from a tape recorder operated by E. As compared to 30 hospitalized medical patients, content of speech of the schizophrenic patients was indistinguishable from controls except for irrelevancies. Degree of personal contact did not seem to affect S's communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size constancy as a function of personal adjustment and disposition.

"A size-distance judging task was given to 40 men who were classified in 4 groups, respectively styled 'neurotic introverts,' 'neurotic extraverts,' 'normal introverts,' and 'normal extraverts.' Analysis of data from 4 distances under 2 conditions of judgment, i.e., objective and analytic, indicated that neuroticism was the major source of between-group variation. Under analytic conditions, neurotic persons tended to match the stimulus in terms of visual angle, and normals in terms of size." 15 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Category Learning on the Representation of Shape: Dimensions Can Be Biased but Not Differentiated.

Recent studies have suggested a profound influence of category learning on visual perception, resulting in independent processing of previously integral dimensions. The authors reinvestigate this issue for shape dimensions. They first extend previous findings that some shape dimensions (aspect ratio and curvature) are processed in a separable way, whereas others (radial frequency components) are not. They then show that a category-learning phase improved the discrimination of a relevant with respect to an irrelevant dimension, but only for separable dimensions. No similar effect was found on the relative sensitivity for integral shape dimensions. Thus, category learning is capable of biasing separable shape dimensions but does not alter the status of dimensions in the visual system as either separable or integral. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual versus tactual receptor preference in normal and schizophrenic children.

Receptor preferences between visual or tactual stimuli were measured in schizophrenic and normal children. 4 pairs of standardized choice situations between visual or tactual stimuli were used, with the time of engagement with either stimulus constituting the preference measure. Schizophrenic children, ages 7-9, were compared with same aged normal children. A group of retardates were used for MA control. Schizophrenics were significantly lower in visual preference than the same aged normals, and an age trend for increased visual preference was found in the normal sample. Retardates showed greater visual preference than schizophrenics of comparable MA. Some implications for theory of schizophrenia are discussed. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)