Cognitive Modification of Test Performance in Schizophrenics and Normals

Abstract

We started from the assumption that meanings individuals assign underlie their cognitive functioning. This study investigated the effects of changes in meaning on changes in responses to a task, including pathological manifestations. We focused on two modes of meaning: lexical meaning, which consists of conventional attributions and comparisons, and personal meaning, which consists of examples and metaphoric expressions. The hypothesis was that inducing lexical meaning (LI) would decrease pathology in the Rorschach whereas inducing personal meaning (PI) would increase it. Subjects were thirty-two hospitalized chronic schizophrenics and thirty-two matched normal controls of both genders. The design was bi-factorial with repeated measures. The Rorschach was administered to the subjects in two individual sessions. To the experimental subjects it was administered either after LI or after PI. Results were that in both groups there was less pathology (higher F+%, P, H, Lower M, O and “special phenomena”) after LI, more after PI. In schizophrenics after PI blunted affect increased, in normals acting-out. In general, in schizophrenics PI led to enhanced pathology, in normals to loosening of habitual controls. Discussion focused on implications concerning cognitive functioning, pathology, schizophrenia, creativity, and hemispheric integration.