The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of auditory background interference on test performance on a group of schizophrenics as well as with a normal group and to ascertain if subgroups of each type could be differentiated on neuopsychological measures from the WMS-R particularly sensitive to left-hemispheric functions.There were 60 subjects, 30 normals and 30 schizophrenics, who volunteered to participate in the study. The schizophrenics, all hospitalized at Logansport State Hospital, had a diagnosis of chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia. The normals were students at Logansport High School enrolled in a senior psychology class. The research utilized a counterbalanced design in which subjects were administered items from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised in both a normal administration condition and in the presence of auditory background information provided by a prerecorded tape.The relationship between auditory background interference and diagnosis was examined using an analysis of variance (MANOVA) of the difference between means. The overall mean for groups did not differ significantly, F (1,58) = .087. No test was identified as being able to differentiate left-hemispheric functions for either group in either testing condition, F (4, 55) = 1.09, p .37. There also was no statistically significant difference between the test performance of males and females in the presence of auditory background interference.The results indicate that neither group evidenced much change in perfromance in the presence of auditory background information. This would suggest that the testing conditionn had little influence on test results. It also suggests that internal differences, as opposed to the external environment, contributed much more to the differences in test performance. The lack of significant differences on the subtests that are considered measures of left-hemispheric functioning may have been due to the significant cognitive impairments of the schizophrenics. The normals may have been more able to increase their attentional and concentration skills in the presence of auditory background interference so that no decreases in performance resulted. / School of Physical Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181493 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Truhn, Patricia L. |
| Contributors | Wenck, L. Stanley |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 68 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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