Conceptual deficit in schizophrenia: a reappraisal

Shimkunas, Algimantas M.

doi:10.1111/j.2044-8341.1972.tb02193.x

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Oltmanns & Neale (1978) strongly criticized the entire work on abstraction and schizophrenia. The failure of Shimkunas' (1972) suggestion that a new interpretation of Goldstein's position should be tried, which was carried out in the current study, only underlines their criticisms. In the authors' view there are two alternatives to abandoning Goldstein's ideas entirely.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

“…Indeed, this seemed to be encouraged by Goldstein when he recommended a series of sorting tasks (Goldstein & Scheerer, 1941) to measure this attitude. Shimkunas (1972) could find no evidence in the experimental literature that schizophrenics had a specific tendency to sort concretely. In fact, their characteristic responses were overinclusive (Payne et al 1959), autistic (McGaughran & Moran, 1956), or just idiosyncratic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The issue has been extensively investigated, with conflicting results. Shimkunas (1972), in a review of thejnain experimental work, concluded that the problem lay in the interpretation of Goldstein's ideas. This is understandable if one studies his writings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The appreciation of imagery by schizophrenics: an interpretation of Goldstein's impairment of the abstract attitude

Cutting

Ryan

1982

Psychol. Med.

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SYNOPSISThree experiments are reported in which schizophrenics are compared with other psychiatric patients on (i) the imagery value of words in their speech, (ii) their memory for words differing in imagery value, and (iii) their ability to distinguish the imagery value of two words. The study was designed to evaluate a neglected interpretation of Goldstein's ideas that schizophrenics are more concrete, in that their ‘action is determined by momentary sense impressions’. The results gave no support for this interpretation and it is suggested that an abnormal way of categorizing the world is more likely to be a useful way of formulating Goldstein's ideas.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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The appreciation of imagery by schizophrenics: an interpretation of Goldstein's impairment of the abstract attitude

Cutting

Ryan

1982

Psychol. Med.

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“…Concreteness is considered to be present if the interpretation of the proverb contains one and/or two key symbols from the proverb, for example ' mice' and 'cat' in the proverb 'When the cat's away, the mice will play'. These traditional ratings [6,8] have been criticized because: (a) they confound concreteness (concentration on the literal dimensions of certain parts of the sentence) and literality (the global interpretation of the literal meaning) [9] ; (b) the low abstraction scores may refl ect a variety of disorders discernible in autistic responses [9][10][11] or idiosyncratic and bizarre responses [12,13] ; (c) the evaluation of abstraction is linked to IQ [14,15] (when the IQ of all participants is equal, these diffi culties are not specifi c to schizophrenic patients compared with other, non-schizophrenic psychiatric patients [15] ), and (d) the quality of the responses depends on the role of the rater [16] and the instructions given to the patients [17] .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpretation of Ambiguous Idiomatic Statements in Schizophrenic and Depressive Patients. Evidence for Common and Differential Cognitive Patterns

Iakimova

Passerieux²,

Hardy-Baylé³

2006

Psychopathology

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Background: This study is concerned with the comprehension of ambiguous idiomatic statements in schizophrenic and depressive patients. Aims: Using a multiple-choice procedure, we simultaneously tested the presence of concrete and literal elements in the understanding of idiomatic statements. Method: Fourteen schizophrenic and 10 patients undergoing a major depressive episode as well as 14 control subjects completed a questionnaire with 10 idiomatic expressions with two possible interpretations (figurative and literal) of equivalent prominence. The participants had to choose one word linked with the different interpretations of these idioms (figurative, literal, concrete or inappropriate meaning). Results: The main results show that, in all the subjects, the contextual characteristics of the task induced a bias in favor of figurative interpretations despite the equivalent prominence of the literal interpretations of the idioms. The selection of responses relating to the concrete meaning of a single word in the idiom constituted a response mode common to both the schizophrenic and depressed patients. Despite the contextual constraints of the task, the schizophrenics opted for the literal responses more often than the other participants. The descriptive analysis argues in favor of a cognitive and clinical heterogeneity of schizophrenic patients. Conclusion: Results support the idea that literality and concreteness in idiomatic interpretation are possibly due to distinct cognitive impairments, though only some are specific to schizophrenic patients.

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“…The problem of cognitive deficit in schizophrenia continues to puzzle researchers and clinicians. Many of the traditional speculations-for example, loss of abstract capacity, regression-have been empirically discredited Chapman & Chapman, 1973;Oltmanns & Neale, 1975;Shimkunas, 1972). While there is support for some of the more recently advanced hypotheses, such as interference theory (Lewine, 1978) and Cohen's perseveration-chaining model (Cohen, Nachmani, & Rosenberg, 1974), the picture , regarding the specific nature of schizophrenic dysfunction remains unclear.…”

Section: Sources Of Judgmental Impairment In Paranoid and Nonparanoid...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of judgmental impairment in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Gillis¹,

Blevens²

1978

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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Conceptual deficit in schizophrenia: a reappraisal

Cited by 17 publications

References 26 publications

The appreciation of imagery by schizophrenics: an interpretation of Goldstein's impairment of the abstract attitude

The appreciation of imagery by schizophrenics: an interpretation of Goldstein's impairment of the abstract attitude

Interpretation of Ambiguous Idiomatic Statements in Schizophrenic and Depressive Patients. Evidence for Common and Differential Cognitive Patterns

Sources of judgmental impairment in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

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