The British Journal of Psychiatry 130: 167-173 (1977)
© 1977 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
What have cognitive deficits to do with schizophrenic symptoms?
DR Hemsley
This paper considers possible relationships between cognitive deficits and
symptomatology in schizophrenia. It is argued that a combination of
defective filtering and slowness in response selection results in a state
of information overload in acute schizophrenia. The methods by which normal
subjects adapt to experimenter-induced overload may therefore be relevant
to aspects of schizophrenic behaviour. The considerable intra- and
inter-subject variability in symptomatology of schizophrenic patients may
represent differeing adaptations to similar cognitive disturbance, such
secondary abnormalities being prominent in chronic patients. Sections of
the literature on acute-chronic differences are consistent with such a
formulation, although one cannot infer intra-individual change from
cross-sectional studies; there is a clear need for longitudinal
investigations in this area. The preferred method of adaptation will be
dependent on the severity of overload, the environment, and personality
factors independent of the psychosis. The implications for the modification
of schizophrenics' behavioural abnormalities by operant procedures are
discussed.
