Facilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia

Article Abstract:

One of the characteristics often observed in schizophrenia is an associative intrusion in speech. This refers to the intrusion of activated associations in speech in excess of what is observed in normal individuals. For example, Bleuler reported this pattern in a schizophrenic patient who, when asked to list members of her family, provided 'father, son...and the Holy Ghost'. It has been suggested that this supplantation of words that are not appropriate is a result of either a lack of decay or a lack of inhibition of word associations, which causes unconventional word combinations. Semantic priming is an effect that results in facilitation. This refers to the rapid association by normal subjects that is made between words that are related, such as 'nurse', followed by 'doctor'. It has been hypothesized that schizophrenics will exceed normal subjects on this type of association during semantic priming. To further investigate this process in schizophrenics, measurements of word associations were made using related, neutral, and unrelated pairs of words. The subjects were 21 schizophrenics, 18 individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and 21 normal controls. The experiment was devised in such way as to also measure the mechanism by which the subject made the word association, either by facilitation or inhibition. The results indicated that the schizophrenics showed increased effects of semantic priming when compared with both the control group and the individuals with bipolar disorder. Scores obtained from the bipolar patients and the normal controls were comparable. The results suggest that schizophrenics may be distinguished from patients with other psychiatric disorders by their associational processing. Limitations of the study are discussed. Further research should be focused upon individual differences among schizophrenics in semantic priming. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Psychological aspects, Complications and side effects, Word recognition

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Strategies for resolving the heterogeneity of schizophrenics and their relatives using cognitive measures

Article Abstract:

Attempts to define the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia have succeeded only in showing that schizophrenics are a very heterogeneous group. However, there is some indication that when the relatives of schizophrenics are tested, they may perform poorly on the same sorts of cognitive task tests on which the patient displayed poor performance. Occasionally, it becomes useful to base the total score of these tests on the difference between two tests, which can help to eliminate random differences between individuals while highlighting differences attributable to clinical state. While this type of evaluation may be of immense importance in clarifying key questions about the genetic and environmental factors which lead to schizophrenia, it also places great burden on investigators for the knowledgeable and precise statistical analysis of data. In particular, such research often requires scientists to assign some score as a "cutoff," above which the performance is classed as normal and below which it is abnormal. The improper assignment of such a cutoff will distort the data and possibly obscure important trends, while the proper assignment will require careful mathematical analysis. The authors recommend solutions for this problem for several types of task scores, and discuss one potentially useful method, the somewhat underutilized method of titration. A task is titrated when, rather than record changes in the score, the score on a task is kept constant by manipulating one or more variables. Unfortunately, there seems to be no ideal method for measuring individual differences in such tests. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Methods, Schizophrenics, Psychoses, Psychotic disorders, Neuropsychology, Neuropsychological tests

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Task difficulty and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia

Article Abstract:

A new research design for avoiding the confounding psychometric artifact of task differences in discriminating power commonly found in studies of schizophrenic cognitive deficits is proposed. The design, which is based on classical test theory and can be applied even to small sample sizes, involves choosing items for difficult and easy tasks of 50% difficulty. When combined with an anagram task, the design showed that normal people and schizophrenics performed similarly, regardless of task difficulty.

Cognition disorders, Cognitive disorders, Experimental design, Research design

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