Award Date

1-1-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Daniel N. Allen

Number of Pages

148

Abstract

Differences in the cognitive profiles of schizophrenic individuals who are family history positive and those who are family history negative have been reported throughout the literature. The purpose of this study was to clarify the cognitive deficits that characterize familial and nonfamilial groups at high-risk for schizophrenia. High-risk was defined as (1) Genetic relatedness to an individual with schizophrenia, or (2) Extreme scores on a measure of schizotypy (i.e., Chapman Scales of Psychosis Proneness). Twenty-three subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. ANOVAs revealed a significant interaction effect on a measure of verbal learning and a double dissociation on auditory and visual working memory tasks. It appears that familial risk may be more associated with deficits on tasks that rely upon rapid encoding and organization of visual information, while nonfamilial risk demonstrated a greater association with abnormalities in left hemisphere mediated verbal abilities.

Keywords

Cognitive; Familial; Functioning; Groups; High; Nonfamilial; Risk; Schizophrenia

Controlled Subject

Clinical psychology; Cognitive psychology

File Format

pdf

File Size

4669.44 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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