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Aspects of cognitive activity in schizophrenia
Psychological Medicine
|November 1, 1980
Summary
Schizophrenic patients show slightly lower intelligence quotients due to difficulties in applying cognitive operations, not intellectual loss. This impacts reasoning, particularly in paranoid and hebephrenic subtypes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Schizophrenia affects cognitive functioning.
- Piaget's genetic psychology offers a framework for understanding cognitive development and deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive operations in schizophrenic patients using Piaget's tests.
- To identify specific cognitive difficulties related to assimilation and accommodation in schizophrenia.
Main Methods:
- Application of Piaget's genetic psychology tests to schizophrenic patients.
- Comparison of cognitive performance between schizophrenic patients and a control group.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenics' intelligence quotients are within the normal range but lower than controls.
- Deficits stem from difficulty actualizing cognitive operations, especially those requiring assimilation-accommodation equilibrium.
- Hebephrenic patients exhibit oscillation between excessive assimilation and accommodation; paranoid patients show predominant assimilation.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive operational difficulties, not intellectual loss, characterize schizophrenia.
- Assimilation-accommodation imbalances contribute to distorted reasoning, concept generalization issues, and a propensity for magical thinking in schizophrenic subtypes.