Time perception and conflict arousal in schizophrenia.

Abstract

The hypothesis that schizophrenics would exhibit greater distortion in estimation of duration time for stimuli relevant to their major conflicts than for other stimuli was investigated. 3 groups, each with 16 Ss who were homogeneous with respect to experiencing primary conflicts with either aggression, sex, or dependency, were formed. A factorial Latin square design was used in which Ss estimated stimuli durations following the tachistoscopic presentation at 4 exposure times of 4 pictorial stimuli, 1 of which represented their major conflict area. Results demonstrated that greatest distortions occurred for conflict pictures at the .001 level. Distortion elicitation of the aggression stimulus was greater than other stimuli at .001 for the combined schizophrenics, an effect not found with normal control Ss.

Psychological deficit in schizophrenia: II. Interference and activation.

“…Rabin (1957) found schizophrenics to be significantly poorer than nonpsychotics in estimating the length of a psychological interview. Lhamon and Goldstone (1956), H. E. King (1962a), and Pearl and Berg (1963) all reported that schizophrenics systematically overestimate short time intervals (.5 to 30 seconds). King's interval-matching study indicated that normal subjects consistently underestimate the same intervals, and he suggested that the deficit of schizophrenics may be attributed to their characteristic psychomotor retardation.…”

“…King's interval-matching study indicated that normal subjects consistently underestimate the same intervals, and he suggested that the deficit of schizophrenics may be attributed to their characteristic psychomotor retardation. Pearl and Berg (1963) had schizophrenics and normals estimate the presentation time of neutral and affect arousing pictures and found that psychotics displayed greater overestimation to the affective materials.…”

Time perception and its neuropsychological correlates in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy volunteers

“…Time intervals used in these studies range from milliseconds to hours (Rabin, 1957;Weinstein et al, 1958;Pearl and Berg, 1963;Rammsayer, 1990). Longitudinal studies have shown that patients tend to either under-or overestimate, and whichever category they fall into is consistent over time (Rabin, 1957;Melges and Fougerousse, 1966;Tysk, 1984).…”