Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T04:12:51.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experiments on Contextual Constraint in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

J. M. Raeburn  and
J. E. Tong
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Contextual constraint is a measure of the degree to which any one word in a passage is determined by the words which precede it, and can be expressed in terms of dependent probabilities. A recall task devised to investigate this topic was designed by Miller and Selfridge (1950) for an investigation on the statistical structure of words in context. Contextual constraint is at its highest in a passage of English text and at its lowest in a passage of unrelated words selected at random. The Miller and Selfridge task requires the subject to listen to seven passages of words in turn and at the end of each passage to write down the words he can remember. The seven passages are arranged in order of increasing contextual constraint from random words to a piece of text.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 506 , January 1968 , pp. 43 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chapman, J., and McGhie, A. (1962). “A comparative study of disordered attention in schizophrenia.” J. ment. Sci., 108, 455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, A. L. (1962). Experimental Design in Psychological Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Herron, W. G. (1962). “The process-reactive classifications of schizophrenia.” Psychol. Bull., 59, 329–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, H. E. (1954). Psychomotor Aspects of Mental Disease. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, J. S., McGhie, A., and Chapman, J. (1964). “Perception of speech in schizophrenia.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 110, 375–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGhie, A., and Chapman, J. (1961). “Perception of speech in schizophrenia.” Ibid., 110, 375–380.Google Scholar
McGhie, A., and Chapman, J. and Lawson, J. S. (1964). “Disturbances in selective attention in schizophrenia.” Proc. roy. Soc. Med., 57, 419–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G. A., and Selfridge, J. A. (1950). “Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material.” Amer. J. Psychol., 63, 176–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. (1956). Statistical Methods (5th ed.). Iowa State College Press.Google Scholar
Tong, J. E. (1955). “Abstraction ability and impairment.” Brit. J. med. Psychol., 28, 1, 19–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venables, P. H. (1963). “Selectivity of attention, withdrawal and cortical activation.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 9, 74–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venables, P. H. and Wing, J. K. (1962). “Level of arousal and the subclassification of schizophrenia.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 7, 114–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, A. (1960). “Abnormalities of psychomotor functions.” In: Eysenck, H. J. (ed.), Handbook of Abnormal Psychology. London: Pitman.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.