Experimental Studies of the Mental Speed of Schizophrenics

Abstract

In this paper, a further examination is made of the finding that schizophrenics, given a problem-solving task to measure mental speed, showed marked improvements attributable to practice (4).Preliminary investigation suggested the importance of the effects of both practice and drugs on speed of problem solving. The latter is reported elsewhere (4). There appears in the literature to be agreement that marked improvement is shown by schizophrenic patients after practice, but Huston and Shakow (11, 12) for example, give evidence that this improvement is even more marked for schizophrenics than it is for normals while Hunt and Cofer (9) report the contrary. Huston and Shakow also raise the question of whether or not it is possible, by very extended practice, to bring the performance of schizophrenics to the level of perfection reached by normal subjects after practice. Clarification of these points is necessary.