Short-term retention in acute and chronic paranoid schizophrenics.

Administered 4 short-term memory tasks to 10 acute and 10 chronic paranoid schizophrenics (age ranges 17-45 and 21-58, respectively) and 10 18-54 yr old nonprofessional hospital staff members. Each task involved the recall of a different type of material varying in meaningfulness from letter trigrams to real word triads. Recall of the material always followed 15 sec of distracting activity designed to prevent rehearsal. Acute paranoid Ss tended to overinclude intralist and extralist responses especially when the more meaningful material was used, while the chronic Ss tended to omit many more responses (p     

Concept identification of schizophrenics as a function of social interaction, sex, and task complexity.

150 schizophrenics participated in a study including 2 sex groups, 3 levels of task complexity, and 3 conditions where Ss served individually or in pairs. In free interaction 2 Ss were free to communicate in reaching mutual decisions; in restricted interaction discussion between Ss was prohibited. The Ss' task was to solve concept-identification problems. Females performed poorest in interpersonal situations and best when alone, whereas male Ss performed as well alone as in free interaction. In free interaction no relationship was found between errors and verbal activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A second testing of paranoid schizophrenics on a dichotic listening task

Data from 15 adult institutionalized Ss tested twice over a 1-yr period show a slight deterioration in organizational abilities for short-term memory task performance over the succeeding times of measurement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of judgmental impairment in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

While it is known that schizophrenic patients perform more poorly than nonschizophrenics on most cognitive tasks, the specific nature of their impairment is unclear. Social judgment theory suggests both procedures and analyses that may clarify this situation. The present study evaluated the performance of schizophrenics on the judgment indices of task knowledge and cognitive control. 12 paranoid schizophrenics, 12 nonparanoids, and 12 nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients completed 60 trials of a complex judgment task. Although all Ss were males, they were not controlled for age, education, or intelligence variables. Some Ss were rated with the Short Scale for Rating Paranoid Schizophrenia. Both groups of schizophrenics performed more poorly than normals, although only nonparanoids demonstrated significant impairment. Analysis of the component indices of performance indicated that the schizophrenic subgroups demonstrated contrasting forms of impairment. Paranoids evidenced poorer task knowledge than nonschizophrenics, whereas nonparanoids were impaired on control. Results may have relevance for identifying sources of cognitive dysfunction and for suggesting differential therapeutic strategies with these patients. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual conformity and responsiveness to social reinforcement in chronic schizophrenics.

In a study with 94 institutionalized schizophrenic residents of a token economy ward, S. D. Asch's perceptual conformity procedure identified 20 "independents" and 12 "yielders." Performance on a letter cancellation task under different reinforcement conditions indicated that yielders evidenced maximum performance during the social reinforcement condition and independents performed best during token and monetary reinforcement conditions. Results are interpreted in the context of role theory and the impression-management hypothesis and suggest that patients will engage in behaviors which are reinforced in ways that are congruent with their orientation to the interpersonal world. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Components of processing deficit among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

22 paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic inpatients were compared to 18 normals in their performance on a sentence verification task. Analysis of latency times indicated that the groups did not differ with respect to the aspect of processing involving central scanning and comparison operations. However, the paranoids were significantly slower than the normals in their overall latency times. Possible sources of this difference are discussed, and results are related to past evidence and hypotheses about central processing performance among schizophrenics. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word meaning and sexual identification in paranoid schizophrenics and anxiety neurotics.

From psychoanalytic theory it is reasoned that the paranoid schizophrenic is one who has not made an adequate identification with the parent of like sex; other theoretical formulations presuppose a lack of identification with either parent. To test which of these hypotheses is valid, Osgood's Semantic Differential was used as a measure of identification (as established by Lazowick, 1955). It was given to a sample of hospitalized paranoid schizophrenics, an outpatient VA mental hygiene clinic sample of anxiety neurotics, and 2 control groups, hopsitalized TB patients and working people. The results indicated that the paranoid schizophrenic showed lack of identification with either parent. To some extent, this was true of the identification pattern of the neurotic group, but the latter also showed confusion of identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preference for complexity in acute schizophrenics.

Employed a paired comparisons scaling technique to assess the preference of schizophrenics for varying quantities of information as presented in geometric forms. Both good premorbid paranoid and poor premorbid nonparanoid schizophrenics showed their greatest preference for the least complex shapes. Results are discussed in terms of H. Munsinger and W. Kessen's (see 39:2) conception of a match between preference for environmental information and input-processing capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsiveness of chronic schizophrenics and normals to social and nonsocial feedback.

This is an investigation of the effect upon learning (of a psychomotor task: depressing a bar in accord with a repetitive double alternation pattern) of feedback on performance from a human being or from a panel of lights in a population of schizophrenics as compared to hospitalized nonpsychiatric patients. It was anticipated that when the feedback was from the human, the schizophrenic would not be able to profit as much from the information as compared to the normals, and that paranoid schizophrenics would profit more than nonparanoid schizophrenics. In general, the hypotheses were supported. The results are discussed as to their theoretical implications. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3JQ06J. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of paranoid schizophrenics on a dichotic listening task.

Used 15 adult normals and 15 institutionalized paranoid schizophrenics in a dichotic listening task within a 2 (Groups) * 2 (Associated or Unassociated Word List) * 2 (Presentation Rate) design, with repeated measures on the last 2 variables. Presentation rates were either 1 or 3 sec. Dependent variables were word recall, intrusion errors, and strategy use and accuracy. Normals recalled significantly more information than paranoid schizophrenics under all memory conditions and had significantly fewer total intrusion errors. For both groups, information recall was significantly better under the associative conditions (particularly associative structure, 3-sec presentation rate). Under the varying structure conditions, paranoid schizophrenics did not employ optimal strategies with the same frequency or degree of accuracy as normals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Length of hospitalization and rate of readmission of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

The underrepresentation of paranoids-a group that manifests less psychological deficit-in hospitalized chronic schizophrenic cohorts has been cited as a source of sampling bias in behavioral studies comparing acute and chronic schizophrenics. The sampling bias hypothesis assumes this underrepresentation to be due to the better social prognosis of paranoid patients. The present study examined hospitalization and follow-up records for 1,249 consecutive inpatient admissions. Consistent with the sampling bias assumption, paranoids were found to be hospitalized more briefly than nonparanoids and to experience fewer rehospitalizations 1, 3, and 5 yrs after discharge. As expected, the social prognosis of 1st admissions was found to be more favorable than that of readmissions, independently of paranoid symptomatology. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of group problem solving experience upon social withdrawal in chronic schizophrenics.

It was hypothesized that chronic schizophrenics exposed to sustained group problem solving experience would tend to improve their levels of social participation on criterion tasks socially more challenging and complex. It was further hypothesized that such improvement would generalize to task performance with total strangers and to social behavior on the ward. All predictions except the one about ward behavior were confirmed by experimental findings with 32 chronic schizophrenic patients. It is suggested that sustained social experience in situations which elicit social participation permit factors to, become operative which reduce anxiety associated with socially more challenging, complex situations and thus facilitate participation in such situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The susceptibility of chronic schizophrenics to social influence in the formation of perceptual judgments.

To test the hypothesis that the schizophrenic process may be characterized by a progressive withdrawal from contact with and hence influenced by the social environment, regressed schizophrenics, partially remitted schizophrenics, and a control group of hospitalized TB patients (all VA) were tested in the Asch (1956) conformity-to-group-judgment situation. Schizophrenics were seen to respond to social stimuli, but their responses had little apparent relationship to the physical or social reality of the situation. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2JQ48S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multivariate cognitive performance levels and response styles among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Examined paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic performance on a battery of information processing measures spanning precategorical processing, short-term memory, and long-term memory. 20 paranoid (mean age 30.9 yrs) and 20 nonparanoid (mean age 29.3 yrs) schizophrenics and 40 normals (mean age 26.69 yrs) were administered the Symptom-Sign Inventory and the Psychotic-Neurotic Discriminator Scale. Multivariate analyses of the multiple processing indexes revealed 2 performance dimensions. The 1st represented "processing efficiency" maximally separating the paranoids and nonpatients with the nonparanoids falling in between. The 2nd dimension reflected a response style of propensity toward stating the presence of stimuli or stimulus properties, with the most extreme separation occurring between the paranoids (higher propensity) and nonparanoids. Though closer to the paranoids, the nonpatients fell between the 2 schizophrenic groups. Discussion draws on the bidimensional characterization of the paranoids and nonparanoids as well as on their differential performance on individual measures. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsiveness of chronic schizophrenics to the social behavior of others in a meaningful task situation.

In this experiment 60 schizophrenics were given the task of stamping a number of greetings to accompany gifts. Instructions to hurray or to be cautious induced reliably differing rates of responding. In order to test the hypotheses concerning the social behavior of the schizophrenic, pairs of Ss were brought together to work in the same room—1 responding slowly and the other rapidly. As a consequence of being in the presence of another patient working at the same task both partners increased their rote of responding, indicating the effect of social facilitation. When the patients were given role instructions with relation to one another their rates of responding converged. Although these changes in behavior took place none of the 22 pairs of Ss (11 in co-working, 11 in role-related conditions) discussed the discrepancy or change in behavior. These results confirmed the hypothesis that schizophrenics will exhibit appropriate social motivation and responsiveness when behaving in a meaningful situation which does not depend on the use of language or complex cognitive skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer learning in chronic schizophrenics.

Compared reversal shift, where the assignment of stimuli to categories changed but the relevant dimension did not change, and extradimensional shift, where a different dimension was made relevant after training. 28 chronic schizophrenics were trained to the same consecutive correct response criterion in a 3-choice form or color discrimination and shifted to 1 of 4 possible transfer tasks. It was found that (a) extradimensional shift took more trials and errors to criterion than reversal shift, and (b) more perseveration as compared to other errors were made by the total sample. The need for a uniform methodology and an evaluation of S selection factors when investigating the performance of schizophrenics is discussed. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual recognition in chronic and acute schizophrenics.

Compared schizophrenic and normal groups on their speed in recognizing the identity of pictorial stimuli which gradually came into sharper focus from an initially blurred appearance. The chronic schizophrenic group (N = 20) showed slower recognition than the acute schizophrenic (N = 20) or normal groups (N = 40), but the groups did not differ in amount of prerecognition hypotheses or time of 1st response. The differences in perceptual recognition speed seem related to certain clinical differences between the acute and chronic schizophrenic, particularly with regard to the impact of external perceptual stimuli vs. internally generated ideation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)