Performance of process schizophrenics on tasks involving visual search.

Compared the response times of 32 process schizophrenics and 16 nonhospitalized matched controls on 3 visual search tasks. Exp I involved the location of a target letter within an array of different background letters. Other experiments required a same–different response. Exp II involved the identification of a single different letter set within the uniform context of a square display formed by up to 40 replicates of another letter. Exp III presented 2 3–6 letter clusters in a single horizontal line. The 2 clusters were identical or had 1 different letter. Word and nonword clusters were used. Paranoid and nonparanoid groups did not differ on any measure. Schizophrenic response times were about 1 sec longer, but measures of rate of increase in response time with number of letters displayed did not generally differ significantly between groups. Schizophrenics tended to make more errors. Experimental manipulations affected the response times and error rates of schizophrenics and controls alike, and to much the same degree. Results suggest that process schizophrenics are not abnormally slow when extracting information from visual displays, and they appear to perform operations and strategies similar to those of normals when doing so. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress responses and coping propensity among paranoid and nonparanoid, episodic, and remitted schizophrenics.

28 remitted and 28 episodic paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics performed a "coping task" consisting of a simple tapping response purported to affect the duration of stressing loud sounds. Cognitive appraisals of the effectiveness of the available response, and task-performance measures of propensity (vis-à-vis reticence) to engage in the response were monitored. Results indicate both paranoid and nonparanoid Ss appraised the available coping response as being less effective than did controls; behavioral measures indicated generally lower propensity to cope among the nonparanoid Ss; the paranoid Ss were similar to controls on selected coping-propensity measures. These differences remained constant across episodic and remitted stages of illness. Psychophysiological evidence of stress arousal (heart-rate acceleration) indicated elevated responsivity specifically among the episodic patients. Results were discussed in terms of current formulations concerning vulnerability to schizophrenic episodes and efforts to cope with environmental stressors. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia and the scanning cognitive control: A reevaluation.

In recent studies it has been inferred from performance on perceptual tasks, that paranoid schizophrenics showed extensive scanning and nonparanoid schizophrenics showed minimal scanning. Eye movements during free-search and size-judgment tasks were recorded for 14 paranoid and 14 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 14 psychotic depressives, and 14 control Ss. Medicated Ss showed lower eyemovement rate and fixation rate than nonmedicated Ss and controls, but there were no significant differences due to schizophrenia. There was a significant interaction between patient type and medication for size-judgment means, but all such differences were reduced to nonsignificance by training. Even after training, Ss showed greater variability in size judgments than controls. Results failed to support the notion of extensive or minimal scanning behavior of schizophrenics. Errors by the psychotic patients in making size judgments were not correlated with scanning behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity and schizophrenia: An equivalence of cognitive processing.

Two tests of creativity were given to 10 paranoid and 10 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 10 nonpsychotic psychiatric controls, and 10 normal Ss. Ss were aged between 18 and 50 yrs. Scores on vocabulary and similarities tests, as well as education, medication, marital status, socioeconomic background, and age, were examined. Results indicate that nonparanoid schizophrenics were significantly more creative than paranoids and psychiatric controls on one creativity measure, a graded level measure of the Alternate Uses Test. Also, nonparanoid schizophrenics produced a significantly higher percentage of "highly creative" responses than did normals. Nonparanoid schizophrenics also scored higher than the other groups on the Welsh Figure Preference Test, but this finding was found to be related to age rather than to schizophrenia. The superior performance of the nonparanoid schizophrenic is discussed in terms of the encouragement that a supportive, nonjudgmental testing environment provides. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive appraisal of stress and schizophrenic subtype.

Studied differences in patterns of cognitive appraisal and response to stress in a total of 19 male nonparanoid process schizophrenics and paranoid reactive schizophrenics. Paranoids evidenced greater heart-rate response to stress stimuli while rating the stress categories as less disturbing than did nonparanoid Ss. Comparison of autonomic measures and verbal ratings of the slides indicated that paranoids underrated their autonomic response to stress stimuli while nonparanoid Ss overrated it. Results suppport the clinical literature on defensive styles of the 2 groups. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual span in schizophrenia.

Administered a forced-choice letter recognition task to assess the span of apprehension of 30 schizophrenics (good premorbid paranoids, good premorbid nonparanoids, and poor premorbid nonparanoids) and 20 controls (hospitalized nonschizophrenics and penitentiary inmates). When the task required only that 1 target letter be detected, there were no significant differences between groups. When the target was presented in conjunction with varying numbers of irrelevant "noise" letters, however, the span of schizophrenics was significantly less than that of either control group. The span of schizophrenics reached an upper limit at a small display size (4 letters) and showed no further increase. The constructs of premorbid adjustment and paranoid status bore no relationship to the deficit. Measures of the trial-to-trial variability in number of elements processed and consistency of scanning path did not differentiate schizophrenics and controls. The number of irrelevant noise letters surrounding a target was found to have no influence on detection in either group. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size constancy in schizophrenia: A reanalysis.

Perceptual differences between normals and schizophrenics revealed by traditional size-constancy experiments are questionable because of S variability, procedural difficulties, and problems inherent in traditional psychophysical methods. A review of the literature reveals few consistent results. The present study compared normals, paranoid schizophrenics, and nonparanoid schizophrenics on a size-constancy task which allowed derivation of additional dependent variables from signal-detection and uncertainty analysis. No group differences were revealed using the size-constancy procedure, but signal-detection analysis indicated nonparanoid schizophrenics were significantly lower in perceptual sensitivity. Uncertainty analysis revealed additional response dispositions characteristic of the schizophrenic groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speed of perceptual functioning in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics: Partial replication and extension.

Results of a partial replication of a study by A. J. Yates and P. Korboot (see record 1971-06730-001), with 3 groups of 10 chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics, paranoid schizophrenics, and psychotic depressives as Ss, confirm the finding of the extreme slowness of functioning in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics. The finding was extended by showing that this group was also significantly slower than chronic psychotic depressives when inspection time was measured uncontaminated by verbal response time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size estimation, perceptual recognition, and cardiac rate response in acute paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Studied perceptual response styles of 8 paranoid and 8 nonparanoid schizophrenics in a VA hospital using size estimation and perceptual recognition tasks. Eight alcoholic patients were used as controls. Only acute, actively psychotic, unmedicated schizophrenics were included. Heart rate responses were monitored during the performance of the tasks. Psychological task performance and concomitant physiological responses were analyzed and integrated. The size estimation results replicate earlier findings. During the perceptual recognition task, the paranoid Ss showed a unique "jump to conclusions" response strategy. Early responding and response rigidity was not found to be specific to paranoid schizophrenics. All schizophrenic Ss showed more large-magnitude heart rate response during both tasks. The relationship between perceptual responses and physiological responses differed among the groups. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus generalization among schizophrenics and normal subjects.

Compared schizophrenic and normal groups on a stimulus generalization (SG) task and attempted to explore whether differences in SG among schizophrenics were related to the type of reinforcement applied during acquisition or to diagnostic subtype. 48 chronic poor premorbid schizophrenics and 48 normal controls reached criterion on a size discrimination task under either praise or censure conditions and then were administered an SG task. Schizophrenics showed significantly greater SG than normals, but no differences were found between the praised and censured groups or between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing by schizophrenics when task complexity increases

Compared the performance of 30 paranoid schizophrenics, nonparanoid schizophrenics, and tuberculosis patients (controls) in a VA Hospital on motor, perceptual, and cognitive tasks of increasing complexity. The data are examined within the context of comparing differential predictions made by input and central processing theories of information-processing deficit. Results indicate that paranoid schizophrenics were comparable to nonschizophrenics in the amounts of information they could process, while nonparanoid schizophrenics reached a stage of information overload with tasks of relatively less complexity. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Number and position of visual stimuli as determinants of reaction time in schizophrenia.

Notes that RT in normal Ss has been shown to be linearly related to stimulus complexity, defined as the log of the number of equally probable stimuli to which a response may be made. Data from an earlier study of 40 short- and long-term paranoid and nonparanoid male schizophrenics and 10 male hospital employees were reanalyzed and compared with P. Venable's (see record 1959-10789-001) study of schizophrenic deficit. Although experimental procedures were dissimilar, both studies found that increased complexity did not result in schizophrenics having steeper regression slopes than normal Ss. Consideration of the position of the critical stimulus, however, clearly indicated that long-term, nonparanoid schizophrenics narrow attention to central cues when confronted by an increase in complexity. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduced range of sensory sensitivity in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Used a forced-choice auditory signal-detection method to test the hypothesis that, compared to acute paranoid schizophrenics, chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics would show a restricted range of sensitivity to environmental cues. 40 male chronic nonparanoid and paranoid schizophrenics served as Ss. Ability to detect the presence of an auditory cue, while concurrently tracking a visual stimulus, was measured under 2 conditions, auditory monitoring being given primary or secondary importance. In this task, a narrowed range of sensitivity implies a greater deficit in ability to detect the auditory cue when the primary focus is placed elsewhere. This deficit was significantly greater in the chronics in both initial and replication experiments. The function of restricted sensitivity in limiting the range of both relevant and distracting stimuli that are responded to by chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic memory-search performance involving nonverbal stimulus properties.

Investigated schizophrenic memory-search performance by conducting a memory-search choice-reaction-time (CRT) task involving nonverbal stimulus properties (real-life sizes of items). Procedures were designed to diminish ambiguities concerning previous evidence of possible schizophrenic impairment in scanning and comparison operations involving memory-held items. Ss (aged 18–60 yrs) were 20 paranoid and 20 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 20 psychiatric controls, and 20 normal Ss. Results indicate that scanning and comparison operations proceeded at comparable rates among the schizophrenics and controls. On the other hand, rates of encoding the presented stimulation for a given trial (the trial's probe item) into a task-facilitative format proceeded at a slower rate among the paranoid Ss in particular. Discussion focuses on specific memory-search CRT paradigmatic conditions in which intact speed of memorial item comparisons tended to be most evident among these patients. Results resemble earlier observations of the present 2nd author (see record 1978-31872-001) on memory-search CRT performance among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics when probe stimulation has remained in view throughout each trial. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fluid and rigid boundaries of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics on a role-playing task

The concepts of fluid and rigid boundaries were assessed in an improvisational role-playing task in an attempt to differentiate paranoid from nonparanoid schizophrenics. Thirty-one schizophrenic patients divided into paranoid, intermediate, and nonparanoid groups were given an improvisational role-playing task. The resulting scenes were analyzed by Fluid Boundary and Rigid Boundary scales, which were developed on the basis of specific aspects of the physical and verbal representations of characters, objects, and settings. The hypothesis that variations in the disruption or emphasis of representational boundaries differentiate paranoid and nonparanoid symptomatology received support. Paranoid schizophrenics scored higher on the Rigid Boundary scale, i.e erecting and/or exaggerating physical and interpersonal boundaries; and nonparanoid schizophrenics scored higher on Fluid Boundary scale, i.e. showing fused and fluid representations of characters, objects, and settings. Improvisational role-playing seems to hold promise as a medium with diagnostic value.     

Scanning-control mechanism and "cognitive filtering" in paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia.

Recent studies of individual consistencies in cognitive behavior, termed studies of "cognitive controls," have emphasized the importance of differing characterological response dispositions which also serve ego defensive functions. This report concerned 2 such response dispositions—extensiveness of scanning and breadth of categorization. Highly significant differences in scanning behavior, inferred from performances on a certain form of size-estimation procedure, were found between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics. Significant differences were also found between the groups on a measure of breadth of categorization. These findings were discussed in terms of some developmental aspects of the 2 cognitive controls and also in terms of the relevance of these findings to a theory of delusional thinking. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disappearance of paranoid symptoms with chronicity.

Investigated the finding of a reduced proportion of paranoids in chronic samples. Whether this change is due to the disappearance of paranoid patients or of paranoid symptomatology is unclear. Data from 50 multi-admitted paranoid schizophrenics firmly support the notion that paranoid symptomatology disappears. Although half of the patients remained paranoid across 10 yrs of illness, the other half changed to nonparanoid status around the 3rd hospitalization and about 6 yrs after 1st admission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational boundaries in role portrayals among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic patients.

Studied the boundary properties of self and other representations in 31 normal Ss (mean age 18.8 yrs) and in 18 paranoid (mean age 21.2 yrs), 14 intermediate (mean age 21.9 yrs), and 16 nonparanoid (mean age 22.1 yrs) inpatient schizophrenics, using a dramatic role-playing technique. Role test and Rorschach responses were scored for presence of fluid and rigid boundaries between representations of human characters. Paranoid schizophrenics evidenced higher levels of rigid boundaries, nonparanoid schizophrenics had higher levels of fluid boundaries, and normal Ss showed fewer fluid or rigid boundaries. Rorschach and role test measures of boundary disruption were significantly correlated with each other and with other measures of psychopathology. Findings suggest that the relative balance between fluid and rigid representational boundaries is an effective discriminator of paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes and that the presence of either type of boundary imagery discriminates schizophrenics from normal Ss. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size Estimation in Schizophrenics as a Function of Stimulus-Presentation Time.

15 good premorbid paranoid acute schizophrenics, 15 poor premorbid nonparanoid acute schizophrenics, and 15 attendants, all males, estimated stimulus paranoid size after receiving (a) 10-sec. and (b) 100-msec. presentations of the standard, also (c) 10-msec. blank flashes instead of the standard. Choices were then made from a group of variable-sized stimuli. As expected, good paranoids, normals, and poor nonparanoids tended to low, intermediate, and high estimation levels, respectively. Contrary to eye-movement interpretation, patient groups differed under the 100-msec. presentation. Lowered estimation level with this presentation suggested stimulus redundancy interpretations. No differences with the blank flash ruled out a simple size-preference response bias. Equal proportions of "hits" among groups indicated that error distributions rather than error frequencies accounted for the results. (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)