A test of the censure-deficit model and its relation to premorbidity in the performance of schizophrenics.

This investigation incorporated controls suggested by the Rodnick-Garmezy model of schizophrenic behavior with the task most frequently employed in disconfirmatory studies, in order to assess the tenability of the latter. A number of hypotheses derived from Rodnick and Garmezy, concerned with premorbid history of patients (Goods and Poors) and normals, reinforcement conditions (reward, punishment, and nonevaluation) and sex of E (parental surrogates), were tested in a 3×3×2 design with reaction time (RT) as the dependent variable. None of the hypotheses was supported. Instead, punishment led to fastest performance for all groups, and all Ss tended to perform faster for male than for female Es. This research is consistent with the results of the disconfirmatory studies rather than those of Rodnick-Garmezy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in visual perception and in visual-motor functioning between psychotic and nonpsychotic children.

The study explored the applicable scope of Bender's theory of a "maturational lag" in functional childhood psychosis. Tests of visual perception, visual-motor performance, and a clinical evaluation of presence of CNS deviations consistent with Bender's criteria for childhood schizophrenia were performed on 39 psychotic and 57 nonpsychotic 8-12-year-old boys. Results revealed no differences in accuracy or variability of perceptual and visual-motor behavior when appropriate controls for large group differences in MA functioning were instituted. No difference in test performance was found between psychotic Ss with and without CNS deviations. With MA level constant, the difference in incidence of CNS deviations between psychotics and nonpsychotics was nonsignificant. The results were interpreted as not supporting Bender's organic theory. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Production of associative sequences in schizophrenia and chronic brain syndrome.

"… timing differences in the associative process of schizophrenics and epileptics" was studied. Recall and a "condition of restricted association were employed… . controls were found to differ from the patient groups with respect to gross output of words… . As increased restrictions were imposed on the associative process, disturbances in the thinking of the pathological groups became more apparent… . results suggest that inappropriate responses (intrusions), which appear in the productions of psychotic individuals, are but symptomatic of a more basic disturbance in thought processes… . [Results] discussed within the framework of Hebbian theory and in relation to other theoretical formulations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual contact with reality in schizophrenia.

"It was hypothesized that under experimental conditions involving minimal distance cues, schizophrenics in poor contact would manifest less size constancy than either schizophrenics in good contact or normals. Three groups of subjects, schizophrenics in good contact with reality, schizophrenics in poor contact, and normals, were tested in a size-constancy experiment under three different distance cue conditions, maximal, minimal, and no cue. The results of the investigation supported the hypothesis. This was interpreted as suggesting that the schizophrenic's break with reality involves not only more complex psychological functions, but basic perceptual processes as well." 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego impairment in schizophrenia as reflected in the Object Sorting Test.

Matched groups of schizophrenics and neurotics (a group which also included personality disorders), were compared on their performance on the Object Sorting Test. The schizophrenics could be significantly differentiated from the neurotics (and personality disorders) by virtue of their conceptualizations involving open-private ideas (à la McGaughran and Moran, 1956), inappropriate sorting, peculiar verbalizations, and perseverative thinking. The results are related to ego impairment in schizophrenia, and add to the capacity of this test of conceptual thinking to distinguish the thinking activity of schizophrenics from that of most other psychiatric patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative study of the personal histories of schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric patients.

Intensive and extensive case histories were obtained on schizophrenic patients and compared with parallel data from a nonpsychiatric "normal" population. The samples, equated on 9 variables, e.g., age, education, etc., were compared re the quality of: interpersonal relationships, home factors, school, occupational and social adjustment, religious orientation, interests, aspirations, and initiative. The results failed to confirm the hypotheses of "schizophrenogenic mothers," or the significant traumatic aspect of the early life of schizophrenics. Of all the factors, scholastic, occupational, and social accomplishment fell into the predicted direction. In general, however, the 2 samples were not differentiated on the basis of biographic data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of marital status to incidence and prognosis of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic patients were traced for 5.5 yr. following initial admission and were classified as Recovered (60 males, 52 females) if hospitalized for no longer than 6 mo. or Nonrecovered (23 males, 33 females) if hospitalized for at least 5 yr. In comparison with the Recovered group, patients in the Nonrecovered group were less likely to be married and showed inferior social and sexual adjustment prior to the illness. Combining the Recovered and Nonrecovered groups, the patients were less likely to be married than people of the same sex and age in the US population. Some variables (marriage, education, and work history) showed a differential relationship with incidence or prognosis of schizophrenia for the male and female patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bootstrapping conjectural indicators of vulnerability for schizophrenia: A Reply to Faraone's critique of Watt, Grubb, and Erlenmeyer-Kimling.

Presented is a reply to the article "Validating indicators of vulnerability to schizophrenia: A comment on Watt, Grubb, and Erlenmeyer- Kimling", (1983). Demonstration of statistically significant mean differences between high-risk and normal control children provides little information concerning the validity and clinical utility of conjectural indicators of vulnerability to schizophrenia. Taxometric methods offer a promising approach for preliminary testing of the validity and clinical utility of such indicators. It is not required that the indicators be nearly infallible. Accurate identification of vulnerability is still possible by combining several indicators that are fallible but relatively independent within the vulnerable and nonvulnerable subgroups. Mixed-group validation methods would be preferable to criterion-group methods in some vulnerability studies but they require dependable estimates of the base rates of vulnerability in high-risk and control groups, which are not available in the present instance. Because of the lack of an available criterion measure of vulnerability in high-risk studies, uncertainty about the validity of conjectural indicators is presently unavoidable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forced-choice word associations in schizophrenia.

This study, based on Freudian theory, used a forced-choice word association format to test the hypothesis that regressed schizophrenic Ss would prefer children's to adult's association. 16 schizophrenic, 16 sociopathic, and 16 normal male patients matched for age and education were tested on a 51-item test in which they were forced to choose their associations from among randomly arranged adult preferred, children preferred, and irrelevant alternatives. Using choice of children's responses minus choice of irrelevant response as a measure to control for random error markings, schizophrenic Ss differed significantly from normal Ss as predicted. Normal and sociopathic Ss did not differ. Sociopathic and schizophrenic Ss differed at p     

Acquired and symbolic affective value as determinants of size estimation in schizophrenic and normal subjects.

"The present experiment investigated the size estimations… of pictures imbued with two kinds of affective meaning by schizophrenics with good premorbid adjustments… with poor premorbid adjustments, and normals. Positive and negative affective meanings were built into two pictures by means of a prior task involving differential reinforcement. In addition, size estimates were made of pictures depicting a mother scolding a boy and feeding a boy. The good premorbid schizophrenics… significantly overestimated the sizes of both the pictures associated with 'wrong' and the Scolding picture… . The results are interpreted in terms of a high degree of anxiety or affective responsivity in the Goods and the predominance of avoidance and withdrawal mechanisms in the Poor." 19 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)