Paradoxical effects in the reaction time of schizophrenics.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
"A reaction-time experiment was carried out, using lights of different intensities, to test Pavlov''s suggestion that paradoxical effects are commonly found in schizophrenics. It was predicted that whereas normal persons tend to respond more quickly to more intense stimuli, schizophrenics respond more slowly to such "ultramarginal" stimuli than to lights of weaker intensity. In 22 out of 24 chronic, nonparanoid schizophrenics, RTs to the brighter stimuli were longer than those to weaker stimuli in a first testing session but not in a second. Convalescent, shore-stay schizophrenics and normal controls showed no paradoxical effects. A tentative hypothesis to explain why the chronic patients did not show paradoxical effects on retest is proposed.".

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: