BJP CPD Online e-learning site
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kemp, R.
Right arrow Articles by David, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kemp, R.
Right arrow Articles by David, A.

The British Journal of Psychiatry 170: 398-405 (1997)
© 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Reasoning and delusions

R Kemp, S Chua, P McKenna and A David
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.

BACKGROUND: Delusions are assumed to reflect disordered reasoning. but with little empirical support. We attempted to study this in 16 relatively intelligent deluded patients and 16 normal volunteers. METHOD: Standard tests were used which required subjects to choose between logically fallacious and valid responses, both of which were plausible. The tests were: (a) conditional statements (if...then), (b) syllogisms (e.g. no A are C, some B are C, some C are not A), and (c) judgements of probability. All three tasks incorporated neutral and emotive content. RESULTS: Both normal and deluded subjects frequently made logical errors. With conditionals, deluded subjects tended to endorse fallacies more often than normal controls and this was accentuated when the content was emotive. Similarity, with syllogisms, the effect of emotional content on the endorsement of unbelievable responses was increased slightly in the deluded group. Finally, the deluded patients showed a trend to be less prone to the conjunction fallacy than normals, suggesting less reliance on existing schema. conclusions: Differences in reasoning between deluded patients and controls are surprisingly small. Patients are somewhat more prone to endorse invalid or fallacious responses, especially when emotive themes are involved.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
L. B. Dunn, D. S. Kim, I. E. Fellows, and B. W. Palmer
Worth the Risk? Relationship of Incentives to Risk and Benefit Perceptions and Willingness to Participate in Schizophrenia Research
Schizophr Bull, February 14, 2008; (2008) sbn003v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br. J. PsychiatryHome page
G. S. OWEN, J. CUTTING, and A. S. DAVID
Are people with schizophrenia more logical than healthy volunteers?
The British Journal of Psychiatry, November 1, 2007; 191(5): 453 - 454.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Arch Intern MedHome page
D. E. Ness
Discussing Treatment Options and Risks With Medical Patients Who Have Psychiatric Problems
Arch Intern Med, October 14, 2002; 162(18): 2037 - 2044.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Psychiatr. Bull.Home page
B. Stanton and A. S. David
First-person accounts of delusions
Psychiatr. Bull., September 1, 2000; 24(9): 333 - 336.
[Abstract] [Full Text]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.