The influence of symbolic stimulus value on perceived size in chronic schizophrenia.

Abstract

It is an accepted fact that the impairment of chronic schizophrenia is both diverse and complex. Deviation has been demonstrated in the areas of cognition, perception, motivation, and emotion. Some theorists have argued for the primacy of deficit in one of these areas, and consequent impairment of the others. Psychoanalytic theory considers schizophrenia as an affective disorder (Eissler, 1954; Freud, 1947). Other theorists have argued for the primacy of deficit in cognitive function (Arieti, 1955;Goldstein, 1943); while still others theorize that the most basic deficit in schizophrenia is motivational (Cohen, 1956;Huston & Shakow, 1946).Probably the most recent aspect of human responsivity which has been considered as the primary impairment in schizophrenia is perception (Klein, 1951;Lovinger, 1956). Cooper (1960) states this position quite concisely when she writes, "While it may be true that schizophrenic impairment involves cognitive difficulties, or emotional conflicts, or both, another possible hypothesis is that schizophrenia involves, more simply and directly, impaired perceptual functioning" (p. 209).The major problem in investigation of the above hypothesis is that of minimizing the effects of any cognitive or emotional deficit. Most investigators have tried to reduce the effects of cognitive, affective, and motivational 1

Interpersonal judgements of schizophrenics: A golden section study

“…Many studies using the repertory grid (Bannister & Salmon, 1966 ;McPherson & Buckley, 1970;McPherson et al, 1975) have found that TD schizophrenics are more disordered on tasks which involve psychological dimensions of people. Further, the introduction of affective and interpersonal aspects into the testing situation has been shown to impair the accuracy of the performance of schizophrenics It is generally assumed that schizophrenics show impairment on tasks which are (Voth, 1947;Johannsen, 1961;Pishkin et al, 1962). Pishkin (1966) concluded that schizophrenics are deficient in their ability to use cues which are essential for making efficient perceptual judgements and processing relevant information.…”

Schizophrenic cognitive dysfunction: A deficit in rule transfer

“…Furthermore, it has been demonstrated earlier in a series of related experiments that schizophrenics' thought disorder is characterized by deficit in filtering endogenous and irrelevant stimulus information with increases in conceptual problem complexity (Pishkin & Blanchard, 1963;Pishkin & Bourne, 1969 ;Pishkin, Smith, & Leibowitz, 1962). The present study was undertaken to explicate further the nature of thought disorder of schizophrenics within a conceptual learning paradigm by examining transfer of training across logical rules.…”

Data‐processing levels and thought disorder in schizophrenia

“…There is also evidence that the cupacity for normal verbal response is unimpaired in schizophrenics (e.g. Feldstein & Jaffe, 1963;Johnson, Weiss & Zelhart, 1964;Satz & Carroll, 1962) although it is not difficult to demonstrate #~ecuZiarities of response (Mabry, 1964;Mattsson, 1964;Richman, 1964).…”