Communication Disorder and Language Production in Schizophrenia

The present study was designed to test a model of the relationships between communication disorder subtypes and language production disturbances in psychotic individuals. Specifically, it was hypothesized that: (1) tangential responses and losses of goal would be related to discourse planning deficits; (2) referential problems would be related to monitoring deficits; and (3) word-approximations and neologisms would be related to editing deficits. Subjects were 43 hospitalized schizophrenic, manic, or schizoaffective-manic patients. All subjects completed an interview used to rate communication disorder and tasks designed to measure editing, discourse planning, and monitoring speech. Word-approximations and neologisms were related to deficits on the editing task. Deficits on the discourse planning task were related to tangential responses. The other hypotheses were not supported. Based on the results, a revision of the previous model is proposed which posits that disturbances in the ability to utilize shared contextual information may play a role in communication disorder.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Barch, Deanna Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Berenbaum, Howard

• Health Sciences, Mental Health
• Psychology, Clinical

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9411561

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72129