Abstract

Several recent studies have examined the manner in which social information is processed in an attempt to better understand the interpersonal functioning and social deficits of schizophrenic patients. In this study, the manner in which schizophrenic subjects represent social information processing are examined. Specifically 40 patients with schizophrenia and 40 normal controls were compared on the measures of social schema processing, information processing and symptomatology. Results showed that schizophrenic patients earned significantly lower schema processing scores than the normal comparison group. The deficits of schema processing in the schizophrenic patients were significantly associated with vigilance, short-term verbal memory, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test hit rate and Perseverative error. These findings suggest that the deficits in the representation of social information provide a unique perspective for understanding the interpersonal dysfunction of schizophrenia. The results were discussed in terms of social schema and research implications also include a need for future attention to the social cognitive rehabilitation especially for the remediation of social schema deficits in schizophrenic patients.