Social Schemas and Perceptual Accuracy in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Thirty schizophrenic and thirty normal males estimated distances between eighteen pairs of cut‐out figures representing neutral and hostile relationships and control rectangles at three different intervals under immediate and delay conditions. The following significant results for overall accuracy and direction of error (social schema effect) were obtained. Schizophrenics were less accurate than normals. All S s were less accurate under delay, but schizophrenics were even more inaccurate in this condition. All S s were less accurate as intervals increased. All S s overestimated small intervals and underestimated large intervals and delay enhanced this effect. Neither neutral nor hostile figures had any effect on overall accuracy or direction of error. These results can be accounted for by the psychological deficit characteristic of schizophrenics and such psychophysical determinants as interval length and delay in judgments. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between procedural variations in experiments and complex intervening variables of a social or dynamic nature such as social schemas.