Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T14:44:24.096Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Have Cognitive Deficits to do with Schizophrenic Symptoms?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. R. Hemsley
D. R. Hemsley*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper considers possible relationships between cognitive deficits and symptomatology in schizophrenia. It is argued that a combination of defective filtering and slowness in response selection results in a state of information overload in acute schizophrenia. The methods by which normal subjects adapt to experimenter-induced overload may therefore be relevant to aspects of schizophrenic behaviour. The considerable intra- and inter-subject variability in symptomatology of schizophrenic patients may represent differing adaptations to similar cognitive disturbance, such secondary abnormalities being prominent in chronic patients. Sections of the literature on acute-chronic differences are consistent with such a formulation, although one cannot infer intra-individual change from cross-sectional studies; there is a clear need for longitudinal investigations in this area. The preferred method of adaptation will be dependent on the severity of overload, the environment, and personality factors independent of the psychosis. The implications for the modification of schizophrenics' behavioural abnormalities by operant procedures are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 130 , Issue 2 , February 1977 , pp. 167 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1977 

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

Adams, F. R. (1967) Stereotypy, social responsiveness, and arousal in a case of catatonia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 1123–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andorfer, J. C., Shimkunas, A. M. & Sciarini, J. W. (1975) Neutralization of affective concepts in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, 722–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleuler, E. (1911) Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias. English Translation, 1950. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Bodlakova, V., Hemsley, D. R. & Mumford, S. J. (1974) Psychological variables and flattening of affect. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 47, 227–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broadbent, D. E. (1971) Decision and Stress. London and New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Broen, W. E. (1966) Response disorganization and breadth of observation in schizophrenia. Psychological Review, 73, 579–85.Google Scholar
Broen, W. E. (1968) Schizophrenia: Research and Theory. New York and London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Broen, W. E. & Nakamura, C. Y. (1972) Reduced range of sensory sensitivity in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 79, 106–11.Google Scholar
Broen, W. E. & Storms, L. H. (1966) Lawful disorganization: the process underlying a schizophrenic syndrome. Psychological Review, 73, 265–79.Google Scholar
Cameron, N. (1951) Perceptual organization and behaviour pathology. In Perception: An Approach to Personality (eds. Blacke, R. R. and Ramsey, G. V.). New York: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. (1966) The early symptoms of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 225–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Claridge, G. S. (1972) The schizophrenias as nervous types. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Depue, R. A. & Woodburn, L. (1975) Disappearance of paranoid symptoms with chronicity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, No. 1, 84–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Wolfe, A. S., Youkilis, H. D. & Konieczny, J. A. (1975) Psychophysiological correlates of responsiveness in schizophrenia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 192–7.Google ScholarPubMed
Epstein, S. (1967) Toward a unified theory of anxiety. In Progress in Experimental Research, Vol 4 (ed. Maher, B. A.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, S. & Coleman, M. (1970) Drive theories of schizophrenia. Psychosomatic Medicine, 32, 113–40.Google Scholar
Feeney, S. (1971) Breadth of cue utilization and ability to attend selectively in schizophrenics and normals. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Flavell, J. H., Draguns, J., Feinberg, L. D. & Budin, W. A. (1958) A microgenetic approach to word association. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 57, 1–7.Google Scholar
Gathercole, C. E. (1965) A note on some tests of over-inclusive thinking. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 38, 59–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruzelier, J. H. & Venables, P. H. (1974) Two flash threshold, sensitivity, and β in normals and schizophrenics. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 26, 594–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gruzelier, J. H. & Venables, P. H. (1975a) Relations between two flash discrimination and electrodermal activity, re-examined in schizophrenics and normals. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 73–85.Google Scholar
Gruzelier, J. H. & Venables, P. H. (1975b) Evidence of high and low levels of physiological arousal in schizophrenics. Psychophysiology, 12, 66–73.Google Scholar
Haley, G. A. (1971) Relations among chronicity, diagnosis, premorbid adjustment, defensiveness, and two measures of perceptual scanning. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 33, 1163–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawks, D. V. & Marshall, W. L. (1971) A parsimonious theory of over-inclusive thinking and retardation in schizophrenia. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 44, 75–83.Google Scholar
Hemsley, D. R. (1975) A two stage model of attention in schizophrenia research. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 14, 81–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemsley, D. R. (1976) Attention and information processing in schizophrenia. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 199–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemsley, D. R. & Zawada, S. L. (1976) ‘Filtering’ and the cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 456–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, D. N. & Messick, S. (1964) Differential Personality Inventory (Form L). College Park, Pa.: Authors.Google Scholar
King, H. E. (1961) Some explorations in psychomotility. Psychiatric Research Reports, 14, 62–86.Google Scholar
King, H. E. (1975) Psychomotor correlates of behaviour disorder. In Experimental Approaches to Psychopathology (eds. Keitzman, M. L., Sutton, S. and Zubin, J.), pp 421–50. New York, San Francisco, London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Koh, S. D. & Shears, G. (1970) Psychophysical scaling by schizophrenics and normals: line lengths and music preferences. Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 249–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lipowski, Z. J. (1975) Sensory and information inputs overload: behavioural effects. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 16, 199–221.Google Scholar
Lhamon, W. T. & Goldstone, S. (1973) Temporal information processing in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28, 44–51.Google Scholar
McGhie, A. & Chapman, J. (1961) Disorders of attention and perception in early schizophrenia. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 34, 103–16.Google Scholar
Miller, J. G. (1960) Information input overload and psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 695–704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Payne, R. W. (1962) An object classification test as a measure of over-inclusive thinking in schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1, 213–21.Google Scholar
Payne, R. W. (1971) Cognitive defects in schizophrenia: over-inclusive thinking. In Cognitive Studies, Vol. III. Deficits in cognition (ed. Hellmuth, J.), pp 53–89. New York: Brunner Mazel; London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Strauss, M. E. (1973) Behavioural differences between acute and chronic schizophrenics: course of psychosis, effects of institutionalization, or sampling biases? Psychological Bulletin, 79, No. 5, 271–9.Google Scholar
Usdansky, G. & Chapman, L. J. (1960) Schizophreniclike responses in normal subjects under time pressure. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60, 143–6.Google Scholar
Venables, P. H. (1975) Psychophysiological studies of schizophrenic pathology. In Research in Psychophysiology (eds. Venables, P. H. and Christie, M. J.). London: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Brown, G. W. (1968) Institutionalism and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study of Three Mental Hospitals, 1960–1968. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.