Effects of immediacy of feedback and level of aspiration statements on learning tasks for delinquent youngsters

The performance of institutionalized delinquent youngsters on paired associate learning tasks was investigated to determine whether level of aspiration (LOA) statements were associated with improved performance under varying feedback conditions. The effects of the feedback conditions were also examined. Forty-eight male adolescents were randomly assigned to the following six treatment conditions: (1) Delayed Feedback, (2) Delayed Feedback with LOA, (3) Immediate Feedback, (4) Immediate Feedback with LOA, (5) No Feedback, (6) No Feedback with LOA. The LOA conditions produced significantly better performance than did the no-LOA conditions. Implications for curricular intervention are discussed.     

Comparison of schizophrenics and normals on a visual search task.

The response times of 16 paranoids, 16 nonparanoids and 16 normals were compared on a search task which required subjects to identify target letters embedded in displays of varying numbers of non-targets. The rate on increase in response times with increased numbers of letters displayed was not markedly different for the various groups, although a derived measure of decision and response-selection time indicated that normals selected responses more rapidly. When compared with normals, schizophrenics seemed to experience more difficulty in response selection and decision than in processing visual stimulus information.     

Disconfirmatory feedback in families of schizophrenics

A new approach to the study of family communication and psychopathology, in particular schizophrenia, using Saugstad's theory about use of language as its point of departure is presented. Conflicts between family members were observed and measured using a new unrevealed difference technique, the Colour Conflict Method (CCM). Communication was analysed in terms of continuous feedback processes, using the new computerized method, Confirmation-Disconfirmation Coding System (CONDIS). Feedback mechanisms in the internal communication of families of schizophrenics, normals, and non-schizophrenic pathological controls (n = 21) are described. The findings show that families of schizophrenics lack the ability to adapt their communication to changing situational requirements. When conflicts were introduced, families of schizophrenics-in contrast to non-schizophrenics within the extended schizophrenia spectrum and normals-increased their frequency of disconfirmatory feedback reactions instead of expressing disagreements openly. This was due to active disqualifications occurring between the parents and from the parents towards their schizophrenic offspring, who reacted with incomprehensible egocentric communication acts.     

Breaching of family generation boundaries by schizophrenics,disturbed, and normals

This study tested the hypothesis that the breaching of generational boundaries, whereby the child assumes mate-like or parent-like role relations with parents, is one of the dysfunctional family processes linked to schizophrenia. Presence of child-as-mate and parentification fantasies was systematically assessed in individual and conjoint projective stories of young adults and their parents in schizophrenic (N=23), disturbed non-schizophrenic (N=19), and normal (N=20) comparison groups. The variable parentification was not found to discriminate groups. Child-as-mate fantasies strongly differentiated the schizophrenic group. Significantly more than controls, schizophrenics and their parents failed to see generationally appropriate family relationships between parent-like and child-like figures, instead projecting mate-like bonds, often explicitly sexual and usually involving a love triangle. In the conjoint family process, although members were equally likely to communicate a child-as-mate fantasy, those introduced by parents received more agreement and less disagreement in response. Methodological and conceptual issues are discussed.This study was part of a comprehensive schizophrenia research program conducted jointly by the Departments of Psychiatry of Michael Reese Hospital and the University of Chicago, R. R. Grinker, Sr., Principal Investigator, supported in part by USPHS grant MH05519-14. Cohler, William Henry, Roy Grinker, Sr., and Martin Harrow for support and consultation.     

Interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenics, depressives, and normals with schizoid tendencies

Although several studies suggest that schizophrenics suffer from an impairment in the interhemispheric transfer (IHT) of information, methodological weaknesses in these studies preclude clear interpretation of their results. This study addresses these criticisms in order to provide a clearer test of the IHT theory. Schizophrenics, depressives, normal controls, and normals with schizoid tendencies were assessed on five measures of IHT (verbal and nonverbal dichotic listening, intermanual transfer, bimanual block design, finger sequence repetition) and two measures of unilateral hemispheric processing (lateral eye movements, auditory thresholds). Results consistently failed to support an IHT deficit interpretation of schizophrenia. Schizoid normals had a significantly greater right-ear advantage on verbal dichotic listening than both psychiatric groups, a result suggesting enhanced left-hemisphere activation in schizoid normals. It is concluded that the IHT theory requires stronger empirical substantiation than has been obtained to date to warrant further consideration as a central theory of schizophrenia.