Psychological test covariates of conceptual deficit in schizophrenia.

Roles of Interpersonal Contact and Verbal Content in Abstract Thinking Deficits of Schizophrenics

“…These data at least suggest that the verbal quality of the Proverbs tasks interfered with the ability of the schizophrenics to think abstractly. The reasons for the d i s~r e p~c y between the present results, in which no betweengroup differences appeared on the nonverbal tests, and ocher studies in which differences did occur on the isc cons in Card-sorting (Fey, 1951), Object Sorting (Chapman & Taylor, 1957;Lothrop, 1960), Block Design (Herron, 1962), and Category tests (Herron, 1962;Parsons & Klein, 1970) are also unclear. While some of the discrepancies may reflect the fact that several of the above authors did not match their groups for verbal ability, matching did occur in other studies.…”

“…While some writers (Goldstein, 1946;Lothrop, 1960) have maintained that the fundamental thinking disorder in schizophrenia is the inability to form abstract concepts, others have claimed that schizophrenics are not abnormally concrete but that their concepts tend to be autistic or otherwise deviant (Chapman & Taylor, 1957;Fey, 1951;McGaughran, 1954;McGaughran & Moran, 1956Shirnkunas, Gynther, & Smith, 1967;White, 1949). Still other investigators (Tutko & Spence, 1962) have found the relative strengths of autism and abstract ability varying from one subset of schizophrenics to another.…”

Conceptual deficit in schizophrenia: a reappraisal

“…Research which followed that of Goldstein and his associates may be grouped into four major categories, of which all but one failed to show that schizophrenics are abnormally concrete and poor in abstracting. Some investigators (Lothrop, 1960;White, 1949;Williams, 1964) simply failed to show that schizophrenics are abnormally concrete. Instead, they demonstrated that schizophrenics respond in ways which are peculiar and difficult for normal people to understand.…”

“…Research (e.g. Chapman, 1956aChapman, , 1956bChapman & Taylor, 1957;Lothrop, 1960;McGaughran & Moran, 1956Payne et al, 1959;Williams, 1964) designed to test these expectations generally confirmed Cameron's thesis, and suggested that Goldstein's theory either needed radical modification to fit the data or was an inappropriate model for schizophrenic behaviour. The bulk of this research has indicated that schizophrenics are not abnormally concrete, but that they verbalize peculiar and idiosyncratic concepts.…”

Impairment in abstract conceptualization in schizophrenia.

“…Although Buss and Lang (1965) cited Fey's study as indicating schizophrenics' capability in abstract conceptualization, the results are clearly consistent with the impairment thesis. Buss and Lang (1965) also cited a study by Lothrop (1960) which utilized Part 1 of Rapaport's (1945) version of the Object Sorting Test. Subjects were 64 male schizophrenic inpatients.…”