Cognitive traps to detect hidden schizophrenia

A 62-item forced choice questionnaire was designed to measure schizophrenia without yielding significant numbers of false positives and false negatives. Manipulation of difference limens for recognition of pathology between paired attitudinal statements allows more accurate assessment of test defensiveness than true-false techniques used with the MMPI. Hospitalized, tranquilized schizophrenics (N = 83) whose symptoms are either in remission or obscured by defensiveness are identified even when MMPI scale-8 T scores are less than 70. This study has implications for forensic assessment.