Schizophrenic and Organic Signs on the Trail Making Test

Abstract

The Trail Making Test was administered to 30 schizophrenic and 30 brain-damaged patients. It was hypothesized that there would be qualitative differences in the performance pattern of the two groups, and specific signs were postulated which might discriminate between brain-damaged and schizophrenic performances on the test. The results indicated that, while schizophrenic Ss either complete the task without error, abandon the task or produce illogical patterns, the brain-damaged Ss rarely produce these types of performances. Rather, they more characteristically exhibit sequence binding, and a tendency to lose track of the alternation pattern and fall into a number or letter sequence. It was suggested that the Trail Making Test shows promise as a useful instrument in distinguishing between brain-damaged and schizophrenic patients.