Formal operations in reactive and process schizophrenics.

Administered E. S. Lunzer's Analogies Test (tapping formal operations) to 40 male process schizophrenics, 15 reactive schizophrenics, and 14 normal controls in a test of the hypothesis that reactive Ss demonstrate more formal operational capacities than process Ss and that normal Ss perform better than both schizophrenic groups. In selecting Ss, an attempt was made to control for age, sex, race, education, length of hospitalization, incidence of addiction problems, number of ECS treatments, and incidence of organic brain pathology. Analyses of variance and covariance supported the basic hypothesis even when differences in general vocabulary level were controlled. Piaget's theory is discussed as providing an explanatory framework for pathological as well as normal cognitive processes. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of threatening stimuli in process and reactive schizophrenics.

Used the Phillips Symptom Checklist to separate male schizophrenic inpatients into process and reactive groups (N= 30 each). Ss were conditioned by pairing certain nonsense syllables with shock; other syllables were presented without shock. Using a T scope, groups were compared on recognition accuracy for neutral and threat (shock) syllables. No differences arose between groups in response to neutral stimuli. For threat syllables, process schizophrenics showed impaired recognition, while reactive schizophrenics showed heightened accuracy of recognition. This finding indicates that the quality of the stimulus itself is an important variable in the perceptual efficiency of schizophrenics. It suggests that process types screen stimulus threat from their awareness, while reactive types are acutely attuned to stimulus threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived maternal nurturance and control of process schizophrenics, reactive schizophrenics, and normals.

Attempted to compare the amount of maternal nurturance and control as measured by A. B. Heilbrun (see 38:5) in 3 S groups 33 male process schizophrenics, 33 male reactive schizophrenics, and 198 normal male undergraduates. Ss were administered the "Parent Attitude Research Instrument . . . measuring control and the Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scale . . . measuring nurturance." Results support the hypothesis "of nurturance differences being present between the mothers of process schizophrenics and mothers of reactive schizophrenics" and "the process-reactive distinction in regard to differences in prior family interaction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overinclusive thinking in process and reactive schizophrenics: Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Thomas S. Eliseo (Journal of Consulting Psychology, 27[5] 1963, 447-449). The quotation from column one, paragraph two on page 448, "the median, 25... higher" should read as follows, "the median, 25, was selected as the separation point for Re (scores of 24 or less) and Pr (scores of 26 or higher)." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1964-04599-001.) Previous research has indicated that schizophrenics show more overinclusive thinking (i.e., failure to exclude behavior unrelated to a task) than do "normals." 17 reactive schizophrenics, 29 process schizophrenics, and 21 chronic general medical-surgical patients, equivalent in vocabulary knowledge and education, were compared on the Epstein Inclusion Test. Contrary to the prediction that the process schizophrenics would commit more errors, no significant differences were found between the groups. It is possible that overinclusion is a characteristic of depression or chronic illness in general, rather than specific to the schizophrenic disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problem-solving characteristics of process and reactive schizophrenics and affective-disordered patients.

Examined the cognitive characteristics of 3 diagnostic groups—30 process schizophrenics (PSs; aged 18–53 yrs), 30 reactive schizophrenics (RSs; aged 21–58 yrs), and 30 affective-disordered (AD) patients (aged 29–73 yrs)—in terms of attention, logic, and problem-solving styles. All Ss were presented with 2- and 4-dimensional discrimination-learning problems. Blank-trial probes, inserted after each feedback trial, provided an assessment of information processing. Regression analyses, adjusting for the effects of age and IQ, revealed significant effects of diagnosis: The performance of PS Ss was similar to that of AD Ss, whereas performance of RS Ss was generally inferior to that of the other 2 groups. This reflected the greater incidence of perseveration among RS Ss. Analysis of unadjusted data, however, yielded few significant effects of diagnosis. A significant effect of problem complexity was generally observed. In contrast to most previous reports, the present study, thus, did not detect cognitive deficits specific to schizophrenia. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometric correlates of defensive style in process and reactive schizophrenics.

Starting with a pool of 47 male hospitalized schizophrenics for whom MMPIs were available, the Phillips Symptom Checklist was used to sort Ss along the process-reactive prognostic continuum. High positive correlations were found between ego defensive style and measures of psychotic disturbance. The more disturbed the S, the more attuned he was to external threat (perceptual sensitization). A smaller but significant relationship was detected between prognostic status and defensive style, with process types tending to be repressers and reactives tending to be sensitizers. Findings support the results of previous studies emphasizing the role of external threat as a strong determinant in schizophrenic perception as opposed to a pervasive unitary organic deficit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract thinking deficit and autism in process and reactive schizophrenics.

Evaluated the influence of inability to abstract and autism on the proverbs interpretations of process and reactive schizophrenics. 48 reactive schizophrenics, 48 process schizophrenics, and 24 normals were scored for abstract level and autism on D. R. Gorham's (see record 1957-01037-001) proverbs test. Compared to normals, both schizophrenic groups were abnormal on each measure, both before and after the groups were matched for vocabulary. However, process schizophrenics were more deficient on abstract level than reactives. There was no significant difference between the mean autism scores of the two schizophrenic groups until the effects of abstract level were removed. Then it was seen that autism was more prominent among reactives than process Ss. Studied independently of one another, loss of abstract ability characterized process schizophrenics, while autism was more typical of reactives. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive structure and pathology in associations of process and reactive schizophrenics.

Tested the hypothesis of different schizophrenic thought processes related to premorbid adjustment through analyses of the word associations of 20 process and 20 reactive schizophrenics. The groups (matched for age, sex, and education with scores corrected for differences in institutionalization when relevant) were predicted to show cognitive structure and type-of-deficit differences, despite a prediction of equally severe current symptoms. Significant differences in categories of healthy and pathological associations support (a) the hypotheses of differences in cognitive structure and type of deficit, and (b) the use of the process reactive distinction in research on schizophrenia. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of affective tone on the verbal behavior of process and reactive schizophrenics.

To test further the hypothesis that schizophrenics, described as "process" or "reactive," would demonstrate differential responsiveness to affective stimuli, Ss were shown slides projecting a verb (some affective-toned, some neutral) and 4 pronouns (him, she, they, I) and asked to make sentences using the verbs and 1 of the pronouns. It was hypothesized that avoidance of the pronoun "I" and retarded reaction time, when affectively-toned verbs were utilized, would distinguish the performance of the 2 groups: The results confirmed the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral variability of process and reactive schizophrenics in a binary guessing task.

Process and reactive schizophrenics differ in run producing behavior when attempting to generate a random binary series of heads and tails. Reactive schizophrenics manifest more response variability than process schizophrenics. Evidence for this is a lower correlation for reactives between number of runs in the 1st and 2nd ? of a series of 300 binary responses. It is of interest to note that reactives are more variable than a normal undergraduate sample whereas process schizophrenics are not (see 34: 7320). The process group produced significantly more runs than the reactive group. This difference appears due to a greater tendency for process schizophrenics to produce runs of 1 (simple alternations), a form of response stereotypy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Formation of concepts of varying degrees of dominance by process and reactive schizophrenics.

Compared the performances of 20 process and 21 reactive male schizophrenics on a concept-formation task involving 3 levels of concept dominance. Concept dominance was determined by high, moderate, and low associative strength of the correct responses to the stimuli. Strength and frequency of incorrect competing responses varied inversely with the associative strength of the correct responses. Findings reveal a significant main effect for concept dominance and a significant Diagnosis * Concept Dominance interaction. Reactive schizophrenics performed significantly better than process schizophrenics when concept dominance was high (i.e., few weak competing responses), whereas there was a trend for process schizophrenics to perform better when concept dominance was low (i.e., many strong competing responses). Methodological implications are discussed in detail. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Monocular distance perception in schizophrenics.

This study was designed to investigate the possibility of a dysfunction in monocular depth perception in schizophrenics. 50 schizophrenics and 50 normals were asked to align monocularly viewed patterned and unpatterned projected images with each of 5 monocularly viewed, minimally lighted rods. An analysis of variance indicated a difference significant beyond the 1% level in the alignment ability of the 2 groups and stimulus intensification of the images with color increased both groups' alignment ability. A trend analysis indicated a significant increase in the difference between the groups from p     

Effects of categorization and imagery on recognition and recall by process and reactive schizophrenics.

Imagery and categorization were orthogonally varied in an assessment of recognition and recall of 16 process schizophrenics (process group), 16 reactive schizophrenics (reactive group), and 16 controls (student group). Schizophrenic Ss were selected from the inpatient population at Bellevue Hospital, and "students" were volunteers who had all received a bachelor's degree. For all groups, recognition was uninfluenced by categorization but was directly related to imagery. For the student and reactive groups, recall was directly related both to categorization and to imagery. For the process group, however, neither variable influenced recall. In addition, the student group had higher intertrial repetition scores than the reactive group, which had higher scores than the process group. Taken together, findings suggest that the process schizophrenic's inabiity to retrieve information from memory is related to faulty mnemonic organization of to-be-remembered materials. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there two kinds of thinking in process and reactive schizophrenics?

Presents a tentative formulation suggesting qualitative differences between process and reactive schizophrenics. The cognitive deficit of reactive schizophrenics is due to fragmentation of relatively normal thinking under stress or during acute disturbance (i.e., on admission). The fragmentation is suggested to result from interference due to excessive responsiveness to external stimuli and task demands. The process schizophrenics are viewed as idiosyncratic (underdeveloped) in thinking, with their performance hampered by emotional withdrawal and disruption from internal stimuli. Interactions of the process-reactive dimension with stress conditions and institutionalization are inferred, since reactives' performance should vary with stress and time since admission, while processes' performance should remain consistently low. Results of 11 studies from the context of the position are presented. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preferred interpersonal distance as a function of locus of control orientation in chronic schizophrenics, nonschizophrenic patients, and normals.

Used a new instrument, the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale, to reassess the relationship between psychopathology and interpersonal distance. It was predicted that, since schizophrenics are more external than normals and since externality has been shown to be related to greater preferred distance from others, 20 female schizophrenics theoretically should prefer greater distance, in general, from interpersonal stimuli. 20 female nonschizophrenic patients were included as controls for the "externalizing" effects of hospitalization. Results show that schizophrenics were more external than nonschizophrenics, who were more external than 20 normals. Preferred distance from interpersonal stimuli as measured by the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale was greatest for schizophrenics and least for normals. Implications for future research and treatment of schizophrenic patients are discussed. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early development of interpersonal distance in children.

Defines personal space as an area immediately surrounding an individual which has invisible boundaries and is often reflected by interpersonal distance. Using a quasi-projective technique this study attempted to determine whether interpersonal distance behaviors are shown by young children and, if so, how certain factors influence such behaviors. The factors examined were sex, grade, setting, and degree of acquaintance. 113 children, ages 5-9 served as ss. Results indicate that interpersonal distance behaviors have been acquired by 5 yr. Of age. The amount of space children used increased with grade level, becoming relatively constant by grade 3. Smaller interpersonal distances were maintained in a formal than in an informal setting. There was also a significant interaction between setting and degree of acquaintance. Males and females did not differ significantly in their preferences for interpersonal distance. Results show that older children make stronger spatial distinctions than younger children, thus supporting and extending earlier research in this area by C. J. Guardo. (french summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the interpersonal interaction on abstract thinking performance in schizophrenics.

Schizophrenics were subjected either to a positive or negative interpersonal situation (a standard interview) between administrations of parallel forms of a proverb scale. The level of abstract verbal performance was shown to be affected by the nature of the intervening interpersonal interaction and changes in level of performance were in the predicted directions for positive, negative, and control groups. No relationship between severity of the schizophrenic disorder and amount of change in level of abstract verbal performance was demonstrated. The proverb scales were cross-validated in this research which further supports their validity as prognostic indicators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual and memory search by process schizophrenics.

Compared the response times (RTs) of 20 process schizophrenics (10 paranoid and 10 nonparanoid) and 20 nonhospitalized controls (mean ages 39.2, 30.0, and 34.1 yrs, respectively) on a hybrid visual and memory search task in which Ss searched displays of up to 15 letters, reporting whether or not displays contained a target, which in different conditions was drawn from a memorized set of 1, 3, or 6 letters. RTs of all groups increased linearly with the product of the number in the memorized target set and the number of displayed letters. Although the intercepts and RTs of the schizophrenics (there were no paranoid–nonparanoid differences) exceeded those of controls, no group differences were found in slopes or in rates of increase in RT as a function of the number of memorized or displayed items. Results are interpreted in terms of a model proposed by W. Schneider and R. M. Shiffrin (1977), which indicates that process schizophrenics are retarded in processes associated with response production but not in a variety of processing stages involved in the comparison of displayed and memorized information. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)