Lexical cohesion and formal thought disorder during and after psychotic episodes.

Compared speech samples obtained from 10 schizophrenics (mean age 28 yrs), 11 manics (mean age 26.2 yrs), 11 schizoaffectives (mean age 25.8 yrs), and 10 normals (mean age 33.6 yrs) for the amount of lexical cohesion both within and between clauses. Two speech samples were obtained for each patient: one shortly after admission to a psychiatric hospital and another several weeks following discharge. All psychiatric patients showed evidence of formal thought disorder at admission, and all 3 groups showed a significant decline in the extent of thought disorder at follow-up. There were no differences between groups with regard to between-clause lexical cohesion at either point in time. Within-clause lexical cohesion did distinguish among the psychiatric groups at the 1st assessment interval; schizophrenics showed less within-clause lexical cohesion than the manics or schizoaffective patients. The manics and the schizoaffectives showed a significant decline in the amount of within-clause lexical cohesion from initial assessment to follow-up. The schizophrenics exhibited a modest decline in the amount of between-clause lexical cohesion. Results indicate that diagnostic differences in lexical cohesion depended on the specificity of the measure and suggest that there are subtle differences between the forms of verbal-communication impairment observed in schizophrenic and affective disorders. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hesitation patterns in the speech of thought-disordered schizophrenic and manic patients.

Conventional hesitations (those between clauses) and idiosyncratic hesitations (those occurring within clauses) were measured in speech samples obtained from thought-disordered schizophrenics, thought-disordered manics, undergraduate students, and nonstudent normal Ss (10 Ss/group). Ss' mean ages were 28.0, 26.5, 21.6, and 30.8 yrs, respectively. Findings are consistent with a report by S. R. Rochester et al (1977): The conventional hesitations of thought-disordered schizophrenics were longer than those of the undergraduate normals. They were not, however, significantly longer than the conventional hesitations of nonstudent normals who were demographically more similar to the schizophrenic Ss. The conventional hesitations of the schizophrenics were longer than those of the manic Ss, in spite of the fact that the manics were also considered thought-disordered. An examination of the relation between hesitation durations and various specific subtypes of thought-disorder within each S group indicated that longer conventional hesitations were not significantly related to phenomena such as derailment, circumstantiality, and loss of goal. Contrary to Rochester's hypothesis, results indicate that the cognitive mechanisms associated with extended conventional pause times are not clearly related to the verbal communication problems that are often experienced by schizophrenics. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in schizophrenic and manic psychoses: The effect of distraction on information processing.

Attempted to identify the general level of cognitive processing that is especially vulnerable to distraction in schizophrenia. The extent and nature of distraction were compared in 12 schizophrenic patients (mean age, 27.8 yrs), 12 manic patients (mean age, 28.2 yrs), and 12 controls (mean age, 26.7 yrs) using neutral and distractor word-span tests. Also, all patients were evaluated by the Nurse's Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation, and 10, 11, and 12 controls, schizophrenics, and manics, respectively, completed the MMPI. On one set of tests, serial position curves indicated that in the presence of distraction the overall deterioration in schizophrenics' performance reflected their tendency to forget early, and not late, items in the lists. On a 2nd set of tests, both schizophrenics and manics were abnormally distracted, regardless of the speed of presentation. Although the controls were also somewhat distracted by irrelevant words, their impairment was significantly diminished at slower rates of presentation. With distraction, schizophrenics and manics were less able to use the extra time in slow presentations for active mental operations such as rehearsal. Both groups made more intrusive errors than normal Ss. Results indicate that distraction interferes with schizophrenics' and manics' information processing at some level beyond the comparatively passive stages of recognition and sensory storage. Problems in selective attention seem to be more closely related to thought disorder than to diagnostic categories. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotions, defenses, coping mechanisms, and symptoms.

Used L. A. Gottschalk and G. C. Gleser's (1969) method of content analysis to examine 5-min samples of speech elicited from 6 different groups of Ss: 30 young normal men (mean age 25.7 yrs), 30 normative adults (aged 20–50 yrs), 30 normative schoolchildren (aged 6–26 yrs), 20 adults with psychoneuroses, 44 emotionally disturbed criminal offenders (mean age 25.6 yrs), and 22 acute schizophrenics (aged 21–55 yrs). Ss were given purposely ambiguous standardized instructions simulating the request to free-associate. Findings indicate that displacements and denials in mentally healthy individuals are more likely to function as coping mechanisms in contrast to their function as defenses or symptoms in mentally disordered people. No significant effects of sex, age, intelligence, or state of consciousness were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological performance and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Examined cognitive functions in 11 positive-symptom (mean age 36 yrs), 10 negative-symptom (mean age 33.8 yrs), and 23 mixed-symptom (mean age 31.4 yrs) schizophrenics; 15 bipolar patients (mean age 34.7 yrs); and 12 normal controls (mean age 34.8 yrs) to explore the relation between symptoms and performance. Ss were administered a neuropsychological test battery including the Purdue Pegboard, the Revised Visual Retention Test, and the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R). Group comparisons revealed generalized deficits in schizophrenics. Positive-symptom schizophrenics scored below normal Ss and negative-symptom Ss on 2 measures tapping verbal memory. Multiple regression analyses revealed that negative symptom ratings were inversely associated with performance on visual-motor tasks, whereas positive symptoms were inversely associated with verbal memory performance. Findings are not consistent with the notion that cognitive deficits are uniquely associated with negative symptoms. Instead, results suggest that there may be specific cognitive correlates of both the positive and negative symptom dimensions. (38 ref) (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)     

Sentence perception and distractibility in schizophrenic, manic, and depressed patients.

Previous research with schizophrenics suggested that distraction may have its primary effect on controlled information processing. To explore this hypothesis, 8 schizophrenics, 8 manics, 8 depressives, and 8 normal Ss (all Ss were aged 18–45 yrs) were asked to shadow short stories in both the presence and absence of a competing message and to answer questions afterward about the content of the shadowed message. The shadowing performance of all 3 patient groups was equivalent to that of normal Ss and was not affected by distraction. Shadowing errors of commission indicated that schizophrenics did use semantic and syntactic information to anticipate words in the relevant message, but the schizophrenics also inserted more semantically irrelevant words than any of the other 3 groups. Distraction did interfere with the schizophrenics' ability to recall the content of relevant passages, but not with the performance of the other 3 groups. Data indicate that distraction may have a specific rather than general influence on controlled information processing or that distraction may reduce schizophrenics' overall capacity to handle information in short-term memory. The analysis of shadowing errors suggested that performance on such laboratory tasks may be closely related to the verbal communication problems encountered by many schizophrenic patients, but also that these symptoms may not be a simple function of selective attention difficulties. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial recall by schizophrenic and affective patients during and after psychotic episodes.

Eight schizophrenics (mean age 27.3 yrs), 8 depressed patients (mean age 33.1 yrs), and 8 normal controls (mean age 27 yrs) completed the MMPI and were asked to recall short word strings in both the presence and absence of distraction. Results show a differential cognitive deficit among schizophrenics both before and after a general improvement in their level of adjustment. That is, despite an overall improvement in their accuracy of recall prior to discharge, their performance continued to be impaired relative to depressed and normal Ss on the words presented in the 1st serial position. A tendency toward greater distractibility among schizophrenics failed to reach statistical significance at both points of assessment. Further substantiation of such stable forms of cognitive impairment may facilitate the identification of individuals who are vulnerable to the development of schizophrenia and may shed light on the adjustment problems that many chronic patients continue to experience after discharge from the hospital. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a scale to measure intense ambivalence.

Developed a 45-item true–false scale to measure intense ambivalence using a procedure that ensured high internal consistency with minimal method variance. It has been argued that intense ambivalance is characteristic of Ss who are genetically predisposed to the development of schizophrenia. The scale was first validated by interviewing 72 (of 759 Ss who completed the scale) college students who scored high and in the normal range on the scale. Ss who scored high on the scale spontaneously reported feeling ambivalent and behaved ambivalently more often than low-scoring controls. The scale was then given to 85 schizophrenics (mean age 35.6 yrs), 30 hospitalized depressives (mean age 35.5 yrs), 192 psychology clinic patients (mean age 27.1 yrs), and 139 normal controls (mean age 31.3 yrs). As predicted, schizophrenics scored higher than controls; clinic clients scored in the middle range. Depressives scored the highest of all the groups. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defective interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenia.

Groups of schizophrenics, nurses, and psychiatric controls were trained to perform a manual shape discrimination task. The 20 schizophrenics included 17 outpatients and 3 short-term inpatients: 10 males (mean age 36 yrs) and 10 females (mean age 37.6 yrs). Nurse control Ss were 10 male (mean age 26.3 yrs) and 10 female (mean age 22 yrs) psychiatric nurses or student nurses. Psychiatric control Ss were 8 males (mean age 36.1 yrs) and 10 females (mean age 32.6 yrs). On both of the tasks included in the experiment, the schizophrenic group, but not the control groups, displayed defective intermanual transfer. The performances of the schizophrenics resembled those previously obtained with split-brain monkeys on similar tasks; therefore, it is concluded that the schizophrenics tested suffered from incomplete transfer of stereognostic shape information from 1 cerebral hemisphere to the other. Experiments suggesting poor interhemispheric transfer on auditory tasks in schizophrenics are discussed along with the possibility that certain schizophrenic symptoms are related to defective interhemispheric communication. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Matched tasks for measuring single-word, referent communication: The performance of patients with schizophrenic and affective disorders.

Developed an objective index of cognitive slippage, an important sign of vulnerability to schizophrenia. In an investigation by E. E. Smith (1970), 2 sets of multiple-choice test items that presumably tap this problem were developed. In the present study, new items were developed, and subsets of each type were matched for mean and distribution of item difficulty and for reliability. The tests were then administered to 37 schizophrenics, 22 patients with affective disorders, and 38 normal Ss (mean ages 22–38 yrs). The difference scores (for the 2 types of items) of the schizophrenics were greater than those of normal Ss, but the schizophrenics did not differ from the affectively disordered Ss. Thus, the previously developed procedure does seem to reflect a genuine cognitive problem rather than a mere statistical artifact. However, the problem is also observed in some patients with affective disorders that are presumably not part of the schizophrenic spectrum. The value of the tasks will depend on their relationship to other measures of schizotypic traits such as anhedonia. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mnemonic organization and free recall in schizophrenia.

Investigated word-storage structure and processes of organization and retrieval in 17 young schizophrenics (mean age 26.5 yrs) and 13 normal Ss (mean age 25.7 yrs). Ss were required to establish a stable organization of 25 unrelated words through repeated, self-paced sortings into self-determined categories. Subsequently, they were asked for free recall of the words. The schizophrenics required significantly more trials to complete the sorting task, but once this was achieved they recalled as many words in equally regular order as the normals did. The groups did not differ in regard to organizational structure in the sortings as assessed by hierarchical structure analysis. It is concluded that a schizophrenic deficit of mnemonic organization is indicated, possibly due to difficulties in maintaining a stable system of categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overinclusion and self-editing in schizophrenia.

Gave 2 Epstein-type overinclusion tasks and 2 Password-type editing tasks to 80 schizophrenics (age range 17-49 yrs) and 20 normal controls (age range 22-42 yrs). For each of the 2 types of test, 1 test was in a free-response format and the other was in a choice format. Test format was not an important variable in accounting for group differences. Schizophrenics rated as severely disordered and delusional showed a nonspecific deficit on all 4 tests. Less disordered and nondelusional Ss performed in the normal range on both overinclusion tests but showed a deficit on both editing tasks. Results suggest that although overinclusion is a correlate of degree of pathology, role-taking deficit is a correlate of the schizophrenia-nonschizophrenia dichotomy. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Left hemisphere dysfunction and left hemisphere overactivation in schizophrenia.

Reports 2 experiments relating schizophrenia to functional brain asymmetry. In Exp I, 24 schizophrenics (mean age, 30.8 yrs) were compared to 24 matched controls (mean age, 37.3 yrs) on 2 tachistoscopic tasks (Syllable Test and Dot Location Test) designed to measure verbal and spatial information processing in the 2 hemispheres. Unlike the controls, the schizophrenics showed a right hemisphere superiority both on the verbal and on the spatial tests, indicating left hemisphere dysfunction in the initial processing of verbal information. In Exp II, lateral eye movements, as an index of contralateral hemispheric activation, were measured in a group of 24 paranoid schizophrenics (mean age, 28.9 yrs), 24 nonparanoid schizophrenics (mean age, 32.7 yrs), and 24 matched controls (mean age, 31.2 yrs). The eye movements were elicited by presenting the Ss with verbal neutral, verbal emotional, spatial neutral, and spatial emotional questions. The schizophrenics had significantly more rightward eye movement, compared to controls, regardless of question type, indicating left hemisphere overactivation. Results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a pattern consisting of both left hemisphere dysfunction and overactivation. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancies, mood, and performance of depressed and nondepressed psychiatric inpatients on chance and skill tasks.

The learned helplessness model of depression predicts that, compared with nondepressed patients, depressed patients will demonstrate psychomotor deficits, provide lower subjective evaluations of their performance, and perceive reinforcement in skill tasks as more response independent. These predictions were tested in 32 depressed (mean age 35 yrs) and 32 nondepressed (mean age 38 yrs) psychiatric inpatients, who had been administered the Quick Test and the Beck Depression Inventory. Ss performed card- and peg-sorting tasks in which measures of performance, ratings of mood and expectancy of success, and subjective evaluations of performance were obtained under chance and skill reinforcement conditions. Although some support was obtained for the prediction that depressives provide lower evaluations of their performance than nondepressives, the other predictions were not supported. Comparisons between depressed and nondepressed schizophrenics indicate that the mood of depressed schizophrenics was especially sensitive to task outcome for both skill and chance conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of psychotropic medication on selected cognitive and perceptual measures.

Assessed the effects of antipsychotic drugs on schizophrenic (SZ) and affective disordered (AD) patients (mean age 28.1 yrs) who completed 11 cognitive tests, including 4 subscales of the WAIS. Two hospital experimental groups (SZs and ADs), 2 hospital comparison groups (SZs and ADs), and a normal control group (mean age 28.7 yrs) were tested on 2 occasions. The 34 experimental SZ Ss and the 26 experimental AD Ss were removed from all medication for 3 wks and were then tested; they were tested again 4 wks after being placed on their prescribed therapeutic drugs. The 13 control SZ Ss and the 6 control AD Ss were tested twice, 4 wks apart, and medicated on both occasions. The 26 normal, drug-free controls were also tested twice, 4 wks apart. Results show the following: (1) During drug-free periods, there were significant differences between drug-free and drug-treated Ss, attributable most likely to generalized deficits. (2) Medication did not affect performance on the tests in any manner. (3) Presence or absence of clinical improvement did not account for performance on these measures. (4) The test performance of Ss already on drugs changed in ways that were very similar to those of Ss who are first off drugs and then put on drugs. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Residual performance deficit in clinically remitted schizophrenics: A marker of schizophrenia?

The study of remitted schizophrenic outpatients is proposed as a way of minimizing the effects of the "nuisance variables" that confound the study of hospitalized schizophrenics. 20 hospitalized acutely disturbed schizophrenics (mean age, 37.0 yrs), 20 schizophrenic outpatients in clinical remission (mean age, 42.8 yrs) and 20 normal controls (mean age, 35.1 yrs) were administered a span of apprehension test and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). All Ss were controlled for sex and WAIS scores and schizophrenics were rated with Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale. On the CPT, both acute and remitted schizophrenics made significantly more errors of omission and commission than did the normal controls. On the span of apprehension, both groups of schizophrenics showed a significantly greater decrement in accuracy of detection of the target stimuli than did normal controls. The same pattern of results has been observed in children at risk for schizophrenia, which suggests that the span of apprehension may be sensitive to core schizophrenic processes that are independent of clinical state. The cross-sectional study of the 3 stages of schizophrenia—the premorbid, acute, and remitted—is proposed as a way of identifying "core" schizophrenic processes and markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The adequacy of a general "attentional impairment" interpretation of schizophrenic deficit is questioned. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict in families of adolescents: The impact on cohesion and power structures.

Investigated 3 characteristics (locus, content, and frequency) of conflict (CF) in families of adolescents. Ss were 134 parents and 170 early (mean age 11.5 yrs), 109 middle (mean age 16.3 yrs), and 47 late (mean age 18.7 yrs) adolescents. Ss reported family CF on T. M. Gehring and S. S. Feldman's (see record 1989-14119-001) Family System Test and in an interview. CF in marital (MADs) and parent–adolescent dyads (PADs) was frequently reported. Across adolescence, reports of PAD CF increased, especially those related to autonomy. CF decreased cohesion and changed power relations in the representations of family structure. CF in the MAD was related to decreased cohesion and increased cross-generational coalitions. (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)