WORD ASSOCIATION LEARNING BY CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENICS 167

3. COHEN, E. and COHEN, B. D. \'erbal reinforcement in schizophrenia. J . abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1960, 60, 443-446.

4. JOEANNSEN, W. J. Heeponsivenescl of chmiic schizophrenics and normals to social and non- social feedbeck. J . abnorm. uoc. Ps&ol., 1961 84 108113.

.5. Lan , P. J. and Bum, A. H. Peycholoeicsl deficit in schizophrenia: 11. Interference and activa- tion. 9: obnonn. Pqchol., 1965, 70, 77-106.

6. MORAN, L. J., MEFPERD, R. 0.. and KIYBLE, J. P. Idiodynamic sets in word association. Psychol. M a o g r . , 1964,78 (2, Whole No. 579).

7. PANEK, D. M. Is the bask of schizophrenia an associate disorder? Paper read at Washington State Psychological Association, Ma 1967.

8. I~ODNICK~ E. H. and GARMJUY $ An experimental approach to the study of motivation in schizophrerua. In M. It. Jones (h.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivalion: 1957. Lincoln: Pniver. Nebraska Press, 1957, p. 109-184.

9. I~U~BELL, W. A. a n 8 JENKINS, J. J. The compI.de Minncsda mrma for tea es lo 1pO wri t s from tJte Ken.!-- Word A m x i d i m Ted. Tech. Itep. No. 11, 1954, K v e r . Minnesota,

Contract N8 onr 66216, olh. of Naval &search. 10. SOMMER, It., WITNEY, 0. and OSUOND, H. Teaching commoii associations to schizophreniw.

J . abnorm. am. Ps+d., 1962,66, 58-61, 1 I . SPENCE, J. T. Verbal discrimination performance under different verbal reinforcement combilia-

tions. J. ezp. Psyehol., 1964 87, 195197. 12. SPENCE, J. T. and LAIR, 6. \ . The effect of different verbal reinforcement combinations on the

verbal discrimination performance of schizophrenics. J . Pers. uoc. PUyChol., 1963, I, 245249. 13. SPENCE, J. T., LAIR, C. V. and GOODSTEIN, L. Effecta of different feedback conditions on verbal

dkcrimination learning in schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric subject*. J . verb. learn. verb. BCJMV., 1963, 3, 339-34.5.

14. ULLMANN, L. P., KRABNER, L. and EDINOER, lt . L. Verbal conditioning of common nw0cirrtion.t in long-term schizophrenic patient*. B b . Res. Z'her., 1964, Z, 15-18.

CONCEPTUAL PERFORMANCE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA* ALLEN A. ADINOLFI AND RALPH BAROCAS

Univeruily of Rochester

PROBLEM An early statement of conceptual deficit in schirophrenia likened schizophrenic

conceptual performance to that of brain damage patients who had lost the abstract attitude or the ability to aasume and maintain a mental set(a). A contrasting view is that schizophrenics are not concrete, but have lost opportunities for consensual validation of their thinking through a process of progressive social disarticula- tion(a- '). A result is concepts characterized by extreme breadth and idiosyncrasy. This viewpoint, the overinclusion hypothesis, has found some support(s* 7 *

Recently, a third hypothesis has been advanced to explain schizophrenic con- ceptual performance'', *). Here, the conceptual deficit is the result of a dmrgan- ization of response hierarchies causing equipotentiality of conceptual responses.

This study evaluates these three hypotheses and attempts to clarify ambiguity in the overinclusion hypothesis. While some define overinclusion as extreme broad- ness and idiosyncrasy of concept('O), others(s) note the degree to which a concept is broad and, separately, the degree to which it is private or idiosyncratic. Moreover, although intelligence has been shown to covary with concreteness and abstractneas ( l o ) , its relation to overinclusion has not been determined(8* lo).

o * lo).

*A vemion of this paper w ~ e resented a t the Eastern Psycholo 'cal Assoc-iation meetings in Philsdelphie April, 1969. The autgors wish to acknowledge Todd R. 8nm for hls lulsistqxe in the conduct of tL xtiidy. Complete tables of the results reported in this study may be obtauied fmm the first niithor.

168 ALLEN A . ADINOLFI AND RALPH BAROCAS

METHOD Subjects. Ss were 43 male schizophrenics and 49 normal males. The schizo-

phrenic Ss were drawn from a VA neuropsychiatric and a state hospital. Schizo- phrenics had to meet these criteria: (1) Undisputed diagnosis of schizophrenia, (2) minimum prorated I& of 80, (3) no history of organic complication, (4) no ECT treatment within the past six months, and (5) hallucinations, delusions or both during the present admission. These criteria resulted in a 41% rejection rate. The final schizophrenic group was characterized by an average hospitalization of 465 days and 2 previous admissions and is matched with a normal control group of non- professional personnel of the VA hospital. Although the normal group is significantly older (44.1 us. 38.1 years, t = 2.727, p < .05), they fall within the same age range for WAIS I& determination.

Procedure. All Ss were administered the WAIS Vocabulary subtest followed by a counter-balanced presentation of three stimulus arrays (tasks). The first com- posed of three tile squares, each with a colored side of either red, green or blue, from the Goldstein-Scheerer Color Form Sorting Test. The second was three tile geo- metric forms, a square, triangle and circle each with a colored side of blue, green or yellow, derived from the same source as items in Task 1. Finally, a metal scissors, safety pin and thimble constituted the third task.

Instructions for each of the tasks were: “I want to see if you can tell me ten ways in which these three things are the same. Tell me the first way.” Responses were recorded verbatim. If a S failed to respond for one minute, he was asked if he knew any other way in which the objects were the same. A negative response or indication that he could discover no further communality terminated the task.

A continuous response procedure yielded measures of conceptual productivity defined as the number of concepts; the temporal expression of concepts; and the quality of the concepts. The first measure tested the hypothesis that schizophrenics produce fewer concepts than normals. The second measure tested the hypothesis that there are differences in temporal expression of the same kinds of conceptual responses between schizophrenics and normals. The last evaluated the overinclusion hypothesis that schizophrenics’ concepts are qualitatively distinguishable from those of normals.

Classification scheme. Each S’s response was categorized mto one of the three groups described below. It should be noted that overinclusion is constituted here by extreme broadness and idiosyncrasy in order to determine their relatedness to each other and to intelligence as well.

The valid restrictive concept (VR).’ This category represents concepts in which S uses an equivalence component which E can identify in another object. The con- cept is restrictive and discriminating in that i t applies to a finite subset of all tangible objects. Examples for each of the three tasks respectively are: “All are square”; “All are geometric forms”; and “All are used in sewing.”

The valid non-restrictive concept (V-R). This category represents concepts which are consensual but indiscriminately inclusive, and speaks to that portion of the over-inclusion hypothesis which is broad rather than personal. Some examples are : “All have perimeters”; and “All can be seen.”

The unique concepl (CJ). This concept represents the idiosyncratic component of the undifferentiated overinclusion concept where S uses an equivalence component which E would not be able to identify in another object. Some examples for each of the three tasks, respectively, are: “They wouldn’t break easily” ; “They have value”, and “I don’t have any.”

’The definition of this type concept and the 1- concept are adapted from the work of McGaiighran and Moran(*).

CONCEPTUAL PERFORMANCE I N SCHIZOPHRENIA 1 ti9

Reliability of the classification scheme. Three judges obtained an 81% unanimous agreement in the classification of 100 responsea chosen equally from both normal and schizophrenic protocols. Unanimous agreement among three judges in placing a response in one of three categories is expected by chance once in 27 times. As there were only two occasions on which one judge differed from the other two, his blind classification was employed in the study.

RESULT^ Intercorrelations for the three tasks within both groups ranged from .57 to .82,

revealing consistent performance among the tasks. No difference between the groups on any of the tasks on overall productivity was observed. Therefore, the view that schizophrenics produce fewer concepts than normals was not supported. A comparison of VR, V-R, and U concepts for each task revealed a single significant difference as normals supplied more VR responses to task three (3.78 us. 2.65, t = 2.502, p < .05).

A response disorganization hypothesis suggests a difference between groups in temporal expression of conceptual responses. Initial (the first half of total re- sponses) and later number of-VR, V-R, and U concepts for each group for each task were compared. The normal group typically gave more VR concepts as initial responses than did the schizophrenic group (Task 1: 3.41 us. 2.86,t = 2.156, p < .05; Task 2: 2.43 US. 1.91, t = 2.153, p < .05; Task 3: 2 . 1 6 ~ ~ . 1.67, 1 = 2.008, p < .05). No differences were observed between the groups for the remaining response cate- gories. However, the normals produced significantly more VR responses in the second half of Task 3 (1.61 us. 1.00, t = 2.500, p < .05).

Intelligence correlated with total responses (.43 for normals; .43 for schizo- phrenics), the production of consensual concepts (.42 for normals; .50 for schizo- phrenics), and broad concepts (.46 for normals, .25 for schizophrenics). Intelligence was not related to the production of idiosyncratic concepts. The observed correla- tions of .03 for both groups between production of V-R and U type concepts lend additional support to the view that overinclusion is minimally bidimensional.

Total productivity correlated .003 with days in the hospital and .019 with the number of previous admissions indicating that these variables were not influencing the measures used in this study.

DISCUSSION Generally, the results indicate that schizophrenic deficit in conceptual perform-

axice is best characterized as a temporally manifested, disorganized response hier- archy"). No support for the hypothesis that schizophrenics are unable to form concepts, or adopt the abstract attitude, was observed. Similarly, the view that the concepts they do form are idiosyncratic and extremely broad received little support. A consistent finding was that normals, more than schizophrenics, confine themselves to the use of consensually agreed upon, discriminating concepts aa their initial mode of response.

The findings further indicate that overinclusion is probably syncretic, because the tendency to use extremely broad concepts is not correlated with the tendency to utilize idiosyncratic concepts. The inconsistent findings(8- l o ) regarding the relationship between intelligence and overinclusive conceptual performance appear to be the result of a differential relationship between intelligence and broadness of concept, and intelligence and idiosyncrasy of concept.

SUMMARY Using a technique of continuous response to the same materials, the quality,

quantity and temporal expression of concepts by schieophrenic and normal Ss were compared in an evaluation of three current views of conceptual deficit in schieo- phrenia. Results supported the interpretation of this deficit as a temporally mani-

170 ALLEN A. ADINOLFI AND RALPH BAROCAS

fested disorganized response hierarchy. Intelligence was found to covary positively with the total production of conceptual material for both groups, but its relation- ship to the production of qualitatively different types of concepts was inconsistent.

REFERENCES

1. BHOEN, W. E. ltespoiwe diaJrgaiiization and breadth of observation in schizophrenia. Paychol. Rev., 1966, 73, 579-585.

2. BROEN, W. E. and STORMS, L. H. Lawful disorganization: the process underlying a schizo- phrenic syndrome. Psychol. Rev., 1966, 73, 265279.

3. CAMERON, N. Deterioration and regression in schizophrenic thinking. J . a h . aoc. Psychol., 1939, 34, 265-270.

4. CAMERON, N. Experimental aiialyek of xchizo hrenic thinking. In Kwnin , J. S. (Ed.). Ian- m e and Thought in Schiwphrenia. New York: b. W. Norton and Company 1964. Pp. 50-64.

5. EPBTEIN, S. Overinclusive thinking in a schizophrenic and a control group. j . COMUU. Paychol., 19.53, 17, 384-388.

6. GOLDSTEIN, K. Methodological a proach to the study of schizo hrenic thou ht diorder. 111 Kasanin, J. S. (Ed.). Language and Tbught in Schizophrenia. New &rk: W . W. Iforton and Com- pany, 1964. P 17-40.

7. LOVIROND, .!: H. The object sorting test aiid conceptual thinking iii schizophrenia. Aualral. J. Paychol., 1954,6, 52-70.

8. MCGAUGHRAN L. S. and MORAN, L. J. “Coiiceptiial level” vemm “conceptual area”: Aualysis of object sorting behavior of schizophrenic and nonpsychotic groups. J. abn. soc. Psychol., 1956,

9. PAYNE, 11. W. Cognit.ive abnormalities. In Eysenck, H. J. (Ed.). Handbook of Abnormal Ps chobgg. New York: Basic Books, 1961, pp. 193-261.

10. %AYNE, lt. W. The mewurement and aignificance of overinclusive thinking and retardation i i1 schiro hrenic patients. In Hoch, P. and Zubiii, J. (Edr.). Paychopahlogy of Schizophrenia. New fork: Grune and Stratton, 1966, pp. 77-97.

69, 44-50.

REDUCED COGNITIVE INNOVATION AND STIMULUS-SEEKING I N CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA

GEORGE B. KISH

Velcrana Administration H ~ a p i l o l , For1 Meade, South h k d a

PROBLEM A salient feature of the pattern of behavior labeled “schizophrenia” is the

presence of some degree of retraction. of interests (apathy). In the psychiatric- hospital setting, apathy is mamfyted in a variety of ways, including: (1) Lack of motivation for and interest in gainful employment, (2) avoidance of activity, with preference for sleeping or sitting idle, (3) avoidance of social interaction, and (4) some younger patients’ complaints that they just can’t get interested in anything and that they don’t get any fun out of life any more (anhedonia).

As is the case with the other defining behavioral characteristics of schizo- phrenia, wide individual differences are found in the degree to which each patient manifests apathy. The Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS) (lo), which is a measure of an S’s interest in seeking stimulating activities, may be a potentially useful instrument for measuring degrees of this apathy.

The SSS consists of 34 forced-choice item-pairs developed on the basis of factor analysis, describing a stimulating and a less-stimulating activity. The SSS score consists of the sum of the choices of the more stimulating activity of each pair.

The present study waa conducted to determine (a) whether the SSS score does- indeed reflect schizophrenic apathy, and (b) whether individual differences in this measure are reflected in the overt behavior of hospitalized schizophrenics.

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