Emotional valence and reference disturbance in schizophrenia

The authors examined the impact of emotional valence on reference disturbance in patients with schizophrenia and identified factors that moderate individual differences in this relationship. Thirty-nine patients with schizophrenia were given an interview that elicited speech samples in response to 10 neutral and 6 negatively valenced emotional questions. Speech samples were analyzed using the Communication Disturbances Index (N. M. Docherty, M. DeRosa, & N. C. Andreasen, 1996). Participants were also assessed with the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (S. Kay, 1991) and a single-trial Stroop task (Stroop, 1935). Group analyses indicated that negative questions elicited more unclear references than neutral questions. Both the severity of disorganization symptoms and selective attention deficits predicted increased reference errors in response to emotional questions.