E-ISSN : 2733-4538
Using a sentence-completion task, this study attempted to determine whether schizophrenic patient‘s failure to process language is caused by their deficits in representing or maintaining/using contextual information. Three groups (a control group of 22 normal people, a group of 23 positive symptom patients, and a group of 20 negative symptom patients) of participants were shown a set of 20 incomplete sentences and asked to complete them. Each incomplete sentence started with a phrase (the contextual information) followed by a homonymic word, the target, with which the sentence ended. The contextual information varied with respect to the extent to which it constrains the meaning of the target. The performance level was measured in terms of the number of sentences correctly completed. The completion was considered to be correct when the meaning of target word was in accordance with that of contextual information. The performance levels of both patient groups was significantly lower than that of the control group regardless of the strength of contextual constraints. Both patient groups' performance was significantly lower in low-constraint condition than in high-constraint condition. There was no difference found in performance level between two patient groups in any condition. The results suggest that schizophrenic patients' failure in processing linguistic information is caused rather by their deficits in maintaining/using contextual information and that schizophrenics understand contextual information rather well. It is suggested that the focus of rehabilitation treatment would be better on improving maintaining and/or using skills of contextual information regardless of the symptoms of schizophrenia.
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