Contextual Constraint and the Recall of Verbal Material in Schizophrenia: The Effect of Thought Disorder

Abstract

Summary: Some research indicates that thought-disordered schizophrenics produce language utterances that are less predictable than those of non-thought-disordered schizophrenics and controls. We examined the hypothesis that thought-disordered schizophrenics would have a parallel deficiency in the ability to use the predictabilities provided by contextual constraint to improve recall of heard language passages. Subjects were seventeen schizophrenics, ten normal controls, and twelve psychiatric controls, evaluated by standardized psychiatric interview and diagnosed according to research criteria. The data obtained supported the hypothesis and non-thought-disordered schizophrenics performed similarly to controls in the experimental task.Failure to classify schizophrenic subjects on the dimension of thought disorder may result in misleading comparisons of general samples of schizophrenics with controls on tasks requiring language perception and production.