Syllogistic reasoning errors in schizophrenia.

Abstract

Von Domarus (1954) and Arieti (19SSa, 19SSb) have asserted that an important aspect of schizophrenic thinking disorder is a certain kind of error in syllogistic reasoning. Arieti calls this error tendency "Von Domarus' principle" (or "paleologic") and describes it as follows: "Whereas the normal person accepts identity only upon the basis of identical subjects, the paleologician accepts identity based upon identical predicates" (p. 194). For example, given the premises:Stags are swift, Certain Indians are swift Von Domarus and Arieti both state that on the basis of the common predicate of swiftness, schizophrenics will conclude that "Certain Indians are stags," while normal people will not. Arieti adds (19SSb, p. 57) that "Of course this principle of Von Domarus must be viewed as determined by an inability to abstract."However, other investigators (Chapman & Chapman, 1959;Sells, 1936) have reported strong error preferences of this sort by normals in syllogisms identical in figure and mood 3 with the above. Chapman & Chap-

The Cognitive Psychology of Delusions: A Review

“…Von Domarus (1994), on the basis of a clinical study, suggested that schizophrenics were prone to make a particular type of error in syllogistic reasoning. Subsequent investigations claim to have found no evidence of errors in syllogistic reasoning in schizophrenics (Gottesman and Chapman, 1960;Williams, 1964).…”

“…Garety, Hemsley and Wesseley, 1991;Huq, Garety and Hemsley, 1988) can be considered as demonstrating biases in reasoning and this work is considered in greater detail below. The Gottesman and Chapman (1960) and Williams (1964) investigations were carried out on schizophrenics in general, and not specifically on schizophrenics with delusions. This is an important point given that it is debatable whether schizophrenia is a unitary entity.…”

Neurobiological Correlates of Delusion: Beyond the Salience Attribution Hypothesis

“…However, a study of Gottesman and Chapman [57] suggested that unlike expected, schizophrenia patients do not suffer from major deficits in logical reasoning or judgment when compared to matched controls. Therefore, it is rather unlikely that the postulated ‘second factor’ is due to a deficit in logical reasoning.…”

Syllogistic reasoning tasks: A methodological review.

“…These syllogisms have also found their way into general intelligence tests (e.g., Thurstone, 1938), clinical protocols (e.g., Gottesman and Chapman, 1960;Von Domarus, 1944), evaluations of attitudes and prejudices (e.g., Gorden, 1953;Janis and Frick, 1943;Kaufman and Goldstein, 1967), assessments of belief systems (e.g., McGuire, 1960), and investigations of memory processes (e.g., Erickson, 1972;Frase, 1166 reasoning has only recently been undertaken (e.g., Erickson, 1974). The advantage of using syllogisms as a task in psychological research, therefore, appears to be twofold:…”