Some aspects of the structure and properties of language facilitating comprehension by schizophrenic patients

Abstract

A series of experiments was carried out to investigate language comprehension in schizophrenia with the aim of discovering the factors which help or hinder communication with schizophrenics.In order to examine the receptive side of language, the experiments were designed to vary the stimuli, while the form of response was very simple and kept constant. The comprehension of single words was examined by presenting patients and control subjects with a picture of an object and a number of alternative words from which the name of the object pictured was to be found. The comprehension of speech passages was examined by means of a series of commands instructing subjects to manipulate a number of toys in a specified manner.It was found that multiple choice word stimuli (rather than open-ended, or single choice word stimuli) aided comprehension in schizophrenia. A large number of alternative words (in contrast to a small number of choices) also helped schizophrenics to understand words. Lists of words to be read and/or discussed by the schizophrenic subjects prior to testing led to better comprehension. Written word stimuli were more readily understood by schizophrenics than oral stimuli. A slow presentation of speech passage stimuli was better comprehended by schizophrenics and patient controls than a fast presentation. It was also found that words associated with the correct word tended to be confused with the correct word by schizophrenic subjects.A theory involving the formation of word boundaries during word selection is offered as an alternative to existing theories to explainthese results. The experiments support the idea that although their word store is organized in a normal manner, schizophrenics have difficulty in selecting words from the store and confuse associated words whose boundaries are not clearly defined.