This investigation examined the effects of stimulus complexity on the verbal behavior of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and a control group of nondiagnosed individuals. The participants were 20 adults with schizophrenia and 20 nonschizophrenic adults that were matched on age and education. Each participant vocally responded to nine stimuli displayed on a computer screen, with three stimuli at each of three levels of complexity. Each experimental session was recorded on video, as well as on cassette tape. Contextually inappropriate responses were tallied by using a partial interval recording system, and were analyzed by counting the number of intervals in which a contextually inappropriate response occurred. A 2 x 3 x 3 factorial design was used to determine differences in responding between the two groups across the type of picture and level of complexity. Overall, the results indicated that there was not a significant difference between the responses of the schizophrenic individuals when compared to the nondiagnosed individuals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3739 |
| Date | 01 January 2000 |
| Creators | Nichols, Shannon Lisa |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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