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Schizophrenic cognitive dysfunction: A deficit in rule transfer
Author(s) -
Pishkin Vladimir,
Lovallo William R.,
Lenk Robert G.,
Bourne Lyle E.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197704)33:2<335::aid-jclp2270330203>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - psychology , cognition , cognitive deficit , cognitive psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , clinical psychology , psychiatry , cognitive impairment
This study examined conceptual rule learning (RL) deficit in male schizophrenic S s categorized into three groups as defined by Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST). S s were administered a conjunctive, disjunctive, conditional or biconditional rule learning task, WIST, and Shipley‐Hartford Memory Scale. It was shown that: (a) the WIST reliably differentiates among three levels of thought disorder as reflected by a deficit in interproblem transfer of rule learning; (b) certain WIST and Shipley parameters reliably predict RL performance; and (c) phenothiazine dosage levels show no influence on the WIST and no correlation with RL. The findings indicate that cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenics is evidenced by limited inductive reasoning, insufficient channel capacity for filtering out irrelevant information, and inability to gain from antecedent RL experience. Principal locus of schizophrenic thought disorder is examined within a stimulus encoding‐information processing paradigm.