Associative response bias and severity of thought disorder in schizophrenia and mania.

Studied severity of thought disorder related to putative, exaggerated tendency of schizophrenics to respond to associative intrusions. Three groups of patients, paranoid schizophrenics, nonparanoid schizophrenics, and manics, participated in the investigation. The findings were: vulnerability to associative distractors is not specific to schizophrenia; performance deficit is more related to severity of thought disorder than to a specific diagnosis; degree of cognitive impairment was found to negatively influence verbal performance; the three groups of patients manifested equivalent levels of cognitive impairment.