How to make a good cup of tea: exploring the scripts of thought-disordered and non-thought-disordered patients

Thought-disordered and non-thought-disordered schizophrenic patients, psychometrically defined, were compared with control patients on a task requiring them to describe how to make a good cup of tea. Schizophrenic patients produced less detail on how to prepare tea and thought-disordered patients, in particular, omitted optional actions involved in serving tea. A number of alternative hypotheses for incoherence are considered in terms of the data and the cognitive complexity of a mental representation is advanced as one crucial factor.