Torque behavior in schizophrenics, elderly persons, and other special groups

The incidence of clockwise drawing (torque) was compared for 90 schizophrenics, 57 institutionalized elderly individuals, 24 general medical patients, 50 adults functioning well in the community, 71 graduate students, and 72 undergraduate college students. In view of Blau's (Blau, T. H. Torque and schizophrenic vulnerability: As the world turns. Am. Psychol., 32: 997-1005, 1977) previous finding that torque behavior in children is substantially associated with subsequent schizophrenic pathology an attempt was made to verify the pathological significance of torque. Results indicated that for all Ss combined 38 per cent produced torque. Only the elderly as compared with undergraduate students displayed a significant difference in incidence of clockwise circling, with the elderly producing more torque. The absence of any significant differences between adult schizophrenics and any of the other comparison groups raises serious doubts about the pathological importance of torque in adults. Moreover, since groups who would be expected to be neurologically more intact performed no different from those who would be expected to be less intact, the neural integrative defect explanation proposed by Blau would seem to be unwarranted.