A word-ordering test to differentiate between aphasia and schizophrenia.

The capacity of a word-ordering task to differentiate aphasic and schizophrenic patients was assessed. Cards containing words from 10 types of sentences were given to the patients. Each sentence was presented individually with the words in jumbled order and patients were asked to reorder them to produce a gramatically correct sentence. Process and reactive schizophrenics were differentiated from aphasic patients using the dual criteria of more than three incorrect sentences or an average of more than 90 sec per sentence as indicative of aphasia. These criteria were initially tested on a group of aphasics matched with the schizophrenics on age and education and cross-validated using a second more representative sample (unmatched) of aphasics. Both comparisons showed no errors of classification. Further analyses indicated no need for separate norms or classification criteria related to the sex, age, or educational level of the patients.