Studies in Learning Impairment. II: Psychoneurotic Patients

Extract

In the first part of an experimental study of learning impairment (Hall and Crookes, 1951) the present writers described some of the distinctive features of the performance of schizophrenic and organic patients on two learning tasks. Brief reference, by way of introduction, was also made to studies of learning efficiency in psychoneurotic patients which were carried out by Zangwill (1943, 1946) and Trist (1941). These writers, and also Davis (unpublished), noted particularly some of the reactions and types of failure that neurotic patients sometimes show, with special reference to the Rey performance test. Certain reactions to the test were felt to be characteristic, for example, of patients with anxiety states or hysterical reactions, although none of the writers had carried these observations further or confirmed them experimentally.