The role of level of functioning in the modification of psychological deficit in schizophrenics.

The modification of the psychological deficit in the free and fixed recall performance of low level functioning schizophrenics was examined. One hundred and eighty-seven male and female schizophrenics were divided into three groups according to their level of functioning on their hospital ward and were tested on free and fixed recall tasks under two conditions of payoff crossed with two conditions of informational cues. The results indicated that there was a definite relationship between level of function and effectiveness of payoff, instruction, and training. With lower levels of patient functioning, a combination of payoff and information across trials proved most effective in modifying the psychological deficit.