Effects of social motivational variables on choice reaction time of schizophrenics.

The effect of 3 kinds of instructions on the reactions times (RT) of schizophrenics was studied. The instruction included nonevaluative and evaluative ("You've done very well" or "You haven't done very well") statements and referred to performance on an apparatus which required S to depress the appropriate key indicating which of two lights had been flashed. The performance of the schizophrenic Ss were compared to that by hospitalized nonpsychiatric patients. In general, the schizophrenic's overall RT was slower than the controls. In both groups, decrease in RT was noted for "failure" instructions, nonevaluative, and "success" in that order. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3JQ24G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)