PubMed1996
Although H. Rorschach considered the Rorschach test as a perceptual experiment, little research has been done on the experiment. Moreover, the Rorschach signs of perceptual impairment in schizophrenia, which he indicated and many scholars have supported, have never been examined by the perceptual experiments. The purpose of this study is to make clear the relationship between the Rorschach response and the perceptual process in schizophrenia by investigating cognitive activities using eye-mark recorder. Four Rorschach cards were selected, achromatic cards I and V, and chromatic cards II and VIII. Thirty chronic schizophrenic inpatients (who met DSM-III-R for "Residual Type", and whose negative symptoms were evaluated according to SANS) and 20 normals were all administered the Rorschach test in the used manner but they wore an eye-mark recorder. Their eye movements during reporting the initial response to each card were recorded on the VTR connected with the eye-mark recorder. On the response of each card, five eye movement items (1.total response time; 2.number of eye-fixation movements/sec.; 3.mean eye-fixation time; 4.mean eye-fixation tracking length, and 5.eye-fixation frequency on each detail area) were measured and analyzed. By their initial response, subjects were divided into 3 response groups: Popular response group, non-Popular response group and Rejection group. On the achromatic cards I and V, cognitive activities during delivering Popular response in schizophrenia were examined in comparing with those of normals. On the chromatic cards II and VIII, after the eye movements of Popular response group in schizophrenia were compared with those of Normals, scanning activities of the non-Popular group, the Rejection group and the Popular group were investigated in comparing with each other among schizophrenics. On the achromatic cards with the most solid blots; Cards I and V, the schizophrenics could easily give a Popular response the same as normals. However, the visual scanning activity of schizophrenics was limited on a small detail area and inactive compared with normals. The results show the discrepancy between the response and the cognitive activity. On the achromatic cards, this suggests that the Rorschach response process in schizophrenia is different from those of normal's, even if the responses of schizophrenia is the same as those of normals. On the chromatic cards with the most broken blots; Cards II and VIII, most of schizophrenics failed to give any response, hardly gave a Popular response but a non Popular response. Among schizophrenics, the few Popular groups indicated a limited pattern with poor scanning on the blot. Besides in SANS, their negative symptoms showed high attentional impairment. Although the non-Popular group gave many color responses, they avoided looking at the color areas, As for the Rejection group, although eye-fixation shifted and searched all over the blots, the subjects failed to give any response. Particularly on Card II, some of their visual focal points scattered on the white space areas out of the blot. This implies the failure of perception focusing on the appropriate blots as the relative stimulus. This implies the impairment of selective attention in schizophrenia. These results suggest that it didn't reveal in the usual manner of Rorschach test until the observation with eye-mark recorder made it possible to show us the response process in schizophrenia.