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Biomedical subjects

T F Oltmanns

Publications and source records attributed to T F Oltmanns.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

The effect of distraction on sensitivity to syntactic structure in schizophrenic and affective disorders.

This study was designed to determine whether the presence of a distracting message would interfere with schizophrenics' ability to utilize syntactic structure in processing information from a relevant sentence. Seventeen schizophrenics, 17 patients with affective disorders, and 16 normals were given a word recognition task in both the presence and absence of auditory distraction. None of the patients was hospitalized at the time of testing. Subjects listened to a sequence of sentences which consisted of two clauses. Immediately following each sentence, the subject heard a probe word and was required to indicate whether it had been part of the preceding sentence. In the neutral condition, the recognition latencies of subjects in all three groups were shorter if the word came just after, rather than just before, the clausal boundary of the preceding sentence. In the presence of a distracting message, the normals and affective patients continued to exhibit this same effect. The schizophrenics did not. The latency of their responses in the distractor condition was not influenced by the location of the target word relative to the clausal boundary. This result indicates that although schizophrenics are sensitive to syntactic structure, their ability to organize verbal messages into meaningful grammatical units may be relatively fragile and subject to disruption by auditory distraction.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Cognitive slippage in children vulnerable to schizophrenia.

Psychological deficit research with adult schizophrenics has been hindered by numerous methodological problems that may be avoided by the prospective study of children vulnerable to the disorder. An object sorting task was administered to 156 children of schizophrenic patients, 102 children of depressed patients, and 139 children of normal parents. The children were between 6 and 15 years old. The children of schizophrenic parents made fewer "superordinate" sorting responses than those of normal parents, and more "complex" sorts (a category of inadequate responses) than children of either normal and depressed parents. Our analyses showed that these deficits could not be explained by differences in intelligence. These deficits in conceptual performance may reflect the genotypic predisposition to schizophrenic and/or represent an early precursor of later maladjustment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Abstract conceptualization in schizophrenia: a fundamental psychological deficit?

Wright (1975) has recently argued that impairment in abstract conceptualization is an important schizophrenic deficit. We contend that the data to which he refers are insufficient support for that conclusion. Although schizophrenics' performance on sorting tasks may be less efficient than that of some other groups, the significance of this finding is debatable. A differential deficit in conceptual ability has not been shown and the confounding effects of third variables have not been ruled out. In addition, the validity of sorting techniques in measuring abstraction has not been adequately established. These methodological issues have a more general applicability to the study of psychopathology. Appreciation of them and a more specific definition of "acceptable evidence" would reduce considerably the continuing state of confusion in research on psychological deficit.

Association↗