Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:55:37.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contextual Constraint and the Recall of Verbal Material in Schizophrenia: The Effect of Thought Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Brendan A. Maher ,
Theo C. Manschreck  and
Mary E. Rucklos
Brendan A. Maher
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Theo C. Manschreck
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Mary E. Rucklos
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Some research indicates that thought-disordered schizophrenics produce language utterances that are less predictable than those of non-thought-disordered schizophrenics and controls. We examined the hypothesis that thought-disordered schizophrenics would have a parallel deficiency in the ability to use the predictabilities provided by contextual constraint to improve recall of heard language passages. Subjects were seventeen schizophrenics, ten normal controls, and twelve psychiatric controls, evaluated by standardized psychiatric interview and diagnosed according to research criteria. The data obtained supported the hypothesis and non-thought-disordered schizophrenics performed similarly to controls in the experimental task.

Failure to classify schizophrenic subjects on the dimension of thought disorder may result in misleading comparisons of general samples of schizophrenics with controls on tasks requiring language perception and production.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 137 , Issue 1 , June 1980 , pp. 69 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cheek, F. & Amarel, M. (1968) Studies in the sources of variation in Cloze scores: II. The verbal passages. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, 424–30.Google Scholar
Gerver, D. (1967) Linguistic rules and the perception and recall of speech by schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 204–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, D. S. & Payne, R. W. (1973) Language structure and predictability in overinclusive patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 643–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koh, S. D. (1978) Remembering of verbal materials by schizophrenic young adults. In Language and Cognition in Schizophrenia (ed. Schwartz, S.). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Lawson, J. S., McGhie, A. & Chapman, J. (1964) Perception of speech in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 375–80.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M. & Elwood, D. L. (1961) The role of contextual constraint on the learning of language samples in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 133, 79–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maher, B. (1972) The language of schizophrenia: A review and interpretation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manschreck, T. C., Maher, B. A., Rucklos, M. E. & White, M. T. (1979) The predictability of thought disordered speech in schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 595–601.Google Scholar
Miller, G. & Selfridge, J. (1950) Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material. American Journal of Psychology, 63, 176–85.Google ScholarPubMed
Rutter, D. R., Wishner, J. & Callaghan, B. A. (1975) The prediction and predictability of speech in schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 571–6.Google Scholar
Rutter, D. R., Draffan, J. & Davies, J. (1977) Thought disorder and the predictability of schizophrenic speech. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 67–8.Google Scholar
Rutter, D. R., Wishner, J., Kopytynska, H. & Hutton, M. (1978) The predictability of speech in schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 228–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salzinger, K., Portnoy, S. & Feldman, R. (1964) Verbal behavior in schizophrenics and some comments toward a theory of schizophrenia. Paper presented at American Psychopathological Association, Annual Meeting.Google Scholar
Silverman, G. (1972) Psycholinguistics of schizophrenic language. Psychological Medicine, 2, 254–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, R. & Endicott, J. (1975) Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), 2nd ed. New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1975) Research Diagnostic Criteria for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders, 2nd ed. Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Reliability of clinical criteria for psychiatric diagnosis. In Psychiatric Diagnosis: Exploration of Biological Predictors (eds. Akiskal, H. S. and Webb, W. L.). New York: S. P. Medical & Scientific Books.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.