The validity of the whitaker index of schizophrenic thinking

Knight, Raymond A.; Epstein, Bennet; Zielony, Robert D.

doi:10.1002/1097-4679(198007)36:3<632::aid-jclp2270360304>3.0.co;2-v

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our intelligence measure, the Shipley-Hartford Abstraction Test, was administered according to standard procedure (Shipley 1940). In a previous study (Knight, Epstein, and Zielony 1980), poor performance on this test correlated with both our medical-file judgment of disordered thought and high scores on the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking. Premorbid social competence was assessed by the Phillips (1953) scale.…”

Section: Prospective Measuresmentioning

confidence: 58%

Concurrent and Predictive Validity of Components of Disordered Thinking in Schizophrenia

Knight

Elliott

Roff

et al. 1986

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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Although the various manifestations of disordered thought have played a central role in diagnostic and theoretical considerations of schizophrenia, such symptoms have not been found specific to schizophrenia, and at best have shown weak relations to outcome. As part of a 7-year followup study of a sample of young, acute, psychotic inpatients, we explored the hypothesis that despite these poor results there might be particular components of disordered thought that might have prognostic utility and be able to discriminate narrowly defined schizophrenics. Using extant symptom scales as our models, we constructed five internally consistent scales of disordered thought from behavioral ratings made using the Psychotic Inpatient Profile--Poverty of Speech, Attentional Impairment, Incoherence, Delusions, and Hallucinations. We tested the ability of these scales to predict various aspects of outcome adaptation including outcome diagnosis. In general, the Attentional Impairment scale demonstrated the best prognostic utility, predicting poorer outcome in several domains. Paradoxically, patients diagnosed by Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) as definite schizophrenic at outcome had been rated as showing less attentional impairment than probable and nonschizophrenics. An examination of the pattern of correlations between Attentional Impairment and performance on cognitive tasks suggested that attentional difficulties may be related to different underlying cognitive processes in those diagnosed schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic at outcome by RDC.

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Section: Prospective Measuresmentioning

confidence: 58%

Concurrent and Predictive Validity of Components of Disordered Thinking in Schizophrenia

Knight

Elliott

Roff

et al. 1986

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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“…The percentage of errors on the with-associate items and the no-associate items were highly correlated, Pearson r = .81, p <.OOOl. WIST total weighted errors, which has been found to be the best derived measure from the WIST for assessing cognitive impairment (Knight et al, 1980;Sackeim & Shapiro, 198 I), correlated significantly with the percentage of errors on the no-associate subtest, r = .47, p <.05, and had a correlation of borderline significance with errors on the withassociate subtest, r = .42, p = .06. Further, WIST total weighted errors correlated significantly with the total percentage of errors for both subtests, r = .63, p <.01.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three measures are derived from the test: (1) total weighted errors, the summed weighted errors over initial and correction trials; (2) time, in minutes, to complete the initial try at the test; and (3) Index, sum of time and total weighted errors. The WIST has been shown to be a useful instrument for assessing general cognitive severity in psychopathology because it correlates significantly with other clinical instruments (Knight, Epstein, & Zielony, 1980) and with concept identification performance (Pishkin, Lovallo, Lenk, & Bourne, 1977).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associative response bias and severity of thought disorder in schizophrenia and mania

et al. 1984

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Studied severity of thought disorder related to putative, exaggerated tendency of schizophrenics to respond to associative intrusions. Three groups of patients, paranoid schizophrenics, nonparanoid schizophrenics, and manics, participated in the investigation. The findings were: (1) vulnerability to associative distractors is not specific to schizophrenia: (2) performance deficit is more related to severity of thought disorder than to a specific diagnosis; (3) degree of cognitive impairment was found to negatively influence verbal performance; (4) the three groups of patients manifested equivalent levels of cognitive impairment.

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“…Although not specifically sensitive to schizophrenic thought disorder (Knight, Epstein, & Zielony, 1980;Lovallo, Sengel, Leber, Schaffer, & Pishkin, 1983) the WIST correlated significantly with the level of cognitive function in a group of schizophrenics tested on attribute identification rule learning (Bourne et al, 1977;Pishkin et al, 1977); both tasks were administered in an untimed mode. Each of its 25 multiple-choice items has a correct choice and four error types: A loose associate, a reference associate, a clang associate, and a nonsense associate, listed in increasing order of severity.…”

Section: Materials and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thought disorder and schizophrenia: Isolating and timing a mental event

Pishkin

Lovallo

Bourne³

1986

J. Clin. Psychol.

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This study explored the ability of nonparanoid schizophrenic, paranoid schizophrenic, and mixed psychiatric control (manics and schizoaffectives) patients to perform on two types of conceptual, speeded inference (SI) tasks, which differ in type of abstraction process required. The subjects (N = 30) were grouped into high and low levels of thought dysfunction, as measured by the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST). There were no differences among the three clinical groups on the conceptual, SI tasks. Reaction times differed reliably across the two SI tasks. High‐WIST subjects were impaired on SI accuracy. Significant impairment in accuracy was demonstrated by high‐WIST time and error groups on the more complex SI tasks. Information processing deficit was demonstrated in terms of encoding phase and reaction time in problem‐solving of the three diagnostic groups as a function of WIST levels.

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The validity of the whitaker index of schizophrenic thinking

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

Concurrent and Predictive Validity of Components of Disordered Thinking in Schizophrenia

Concurrent and Predictive Validity of Components of Disordered Thinking in Schizophrenia

Associative response bias and severity of thought disorder in schizophrenia and mania

Thought disorder and schizophrenia: Isolating and timing a mental event

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