Do patients with schizophrenia attribute mental states in a referential communication task?

Abstract

Introduction. Many studies have reported that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) may have impaired social cognition, resulting in communication disorders and theory of mind (ToM) impairments. However, the classical tasks used to assess impaired ToM ability are too complex. The aim of this study was to assess ToM ability using both a classical task and a referential communication task that reproduces a ‘‘natural’’ conversation situation.

Methods. Thirty-one participants with schizophrenia and 29 matched healthy participants were tested individually on a referential communication task and on a standard ToM task.

Results and Conclusion. The main results showed that SZ participants had difficulties using reference markers and attributing mental states in both ToM tasks. Contrary to healthy participants, they exhibited a tendency to ineffectively mark the information they used (indefinite articles for old information and/or definite articles for new information) and had problems using information they shared with the experimenter.

Keywords:

• Real-life conversation
• Schizophrenia
• Shared knowledge
• Social cognition

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (New investigator and operating grant no. 5793 to MCL), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Operating grant no. 327313-06 to MCL), and by the Chair of Schizophrenia at the Université de Montréal (to ES).

Notes

¹Authors such as Docherty, Cohen, Nienow, Dinzeo, and Dangelmaier (2003), Docherty, Hall, Gordinier, and Cutting (2000), and Rochester and Martin (1979) have shown an inadequate use of reference markers in the discourse of patients with schizophrenia.