Cognitive rigidity in information processing of chronic undifferentiated schizophrenics.

This study investigated Concept Identification (CI) performance and hypothesis behavior of 100 chronic undifferentiated schizophrenic and matched normal Ss as functions of motor-cognitive, personality-perceptual, and psychomotor speed parameters of rigidity. The CI task was designed to test the effects of five levels of information complexity and to examine 10 categories of hypothesis strategies utilized in conceptual problem solving. It was found that normals were superior to schizophrenics in CI and that schizophrenics performed more poorly than normals at higher complexity levels. Normals were markedly less rigid on the motor-cognitive dimension than were schizophrenics. Correlational analysis revealed a number of reliable relationships between the three rigidity measures and the 10 hypothesis categories. Some insight was gained about the role of rigidity in utilization of effective strategies in problem solving; the psychomotor speed factor emerged as the best predictor of schizophrenics' hypothesis behavior.