Interference in word associations in schizophrenia.

Assessed the effect of response interference on the word associations of male and female process and reactive schizophrenics in two studies that used the difference in associative disturbances between high and low interference (low and high commonality stimulus words) as the measure. The reactives showed a significantly greater increase in disturbances in the high interference condition than did process schizophrenics in both studies. These results occurred in process and reactive groups that did not differ in age, IQ, institutionalization, and current level of physiological arousal and symptom severity in Study I. Findings supported predictions from a qualitative differences theory of cognitive deficit in schizophrenia.