Abstract and concrete behavior an experimental study with special tests.

Abstract

Examines the difference between abstract and concrete behavior without statistical methods at this phase of the authors' work and knowledge, believing it to be the preliminary task, especially of psychopathology, to ascertain data on a descriptive, qualitative level. The distinction between an abstract and concrete attitude in the characterized sense of two different behavioral ranges is of such a preliminary descriptive nature. The methods of testing used, especially the Sorting Tests for determining the impairment of abstract behavior, have also proven fruitful in the study of mental deterioration of other kinds. The performance tests in common usage do this too, but mainly because one tries to avoid the positive effects of verbal training or the negative effects of its absence upon results in verbal testing. In other words the objective of the routine performance test is to determine the actual capacity of a subject which may not express itself in die same clear-cut manner on a verbal test. The authors' tests share this advantage of the performance tests. In these tests the task is so elementary and simple that there can be no doubt about such a condition: a patient cannot sort colors or equally shaped figures together on request; nor can he accept such groupings; neither does he understand the given explanation; nor can he give an account of his concrete grouping; he also fails on request to shift this grouping to another form.

The fur of the crocodile and the mooing sheep: A study of a patient with a category-specific impairment for biological things

“…However, artefact explanations cannot account for some attested patterns of impairment, like selective impairment for biological categories in patients displaying intact structural knowledge (e.g., SB, studied by Sheridan & Humphreys, 1993), and selective impairment for nonbiological items, supposedly easier to process (Sacchett & Humphreys, 1992;Silveri et al, 1997;Tippett, Glosser, & Farah, 1996;Warrington & McCarthy, 1983. In particular, observations of opposite patterns of category deficits on the same items (Gonnerman et al, 1997;Hillis & Caramazza, 1991) strongly reinforce the notion that these deficits cannot be due to differences in the degree of processing demand. Some authors have recently proposed that nonliving things may even be harder to process (Laws, 2000;Laws & Neve, 1999;Turnbull & Laws, 2000).…”

“…Normal results were obtained on the Ishiara's (1979) test (one error for each eye). Some errors were observed on the Gelb Goldstein colour sorting test (Goldstein & Scheerer, 1941), but some browns and oranges could not be sorted; beige was classified as pale green, then as white; dark and pale pinks were separated. On the second part of this test, ER correctly sorted the skeins when categories were selected by the examiner.…”

“…This opposition is related to the notion of distinguishing features, which serve to differentiate items belonging to the same category (e.g., Gonnerman, Andersen, Devlin, Kempler, & Seidenberg, 1997). Sensorial features (shape, colour, texture, sound, etc.)…”

The Many Faces of Consciousness

“…These sets were chosen because there are indications for their existence and functioning in different contexts. These two modes of approach have been studied in the con-text of development, where it was shown that children proceed from the concrete operational stage to the stage of abstract and formal thinking (Piaget, 1954); in the psychopathological context, where concrete thinking was shown to be a characteristic hallmark of schizophrenia (Schwartz, 2014); in cultural anthropology where the tendencies for concrete or abstract thinking have been identified as characteristic features of different cultures (e.g., Holland & Quin, 1987); and in of brain-damaged individuals (Goldstein & Scheerer, 1941). In the present study experimental manipulations of particular meaning variables were undertaken with the purpose of producing in individuals temporarily concrete and abstract states of consciousness and testing their expected manifestations in the performance of cognitive tasks and the self image.…”

The Rôle of Mediating Verbal Responses in the Conceptual Sorting Behavior of Normals and Paranoid Schizophrenics

“…This frame or; la also baaed on an earlier suggestion of Qibaon's (5) and to some extent parallels Osgood 1 a (13) recent proposal. Experimental atudiea (13) which hare provided data bearing on the adequacy of this framework were also pertinent, finally, procedures and hypothec: !i v seen derived Iron a third trend, clinical and experimental comparisons of the conceptual behavior of normals and schisophrenics (6,8).…”