Effects of social reinforcement on the level of abstraction in schizophrenics.

This study was designed to investigate (a) the effects of the nature of contingent vs. noncontingent social reinforcement upon the level of abstraction in schizophrenics as measured on a proverbs task, (b) the generalization of this behavior to another verbal conceptual task administered under neutral conditions, (c) the predictive and construct validity of the UUmann-Giovannoni Process-Reactive Self-Report Scale. 64 male schizophrenics were assigned to 4 treatment groups: contingent positive, noncontingent positive, contingent negative, and control. The results indicated that only the contingent positive group significantly increased their level of performance on the proverbs task and showed generalization. The other 3 groups showed no significant differences. Validity evidence for the Process-Reactive Scale and marital status was obtained.