CUES TO THE ASSESSMENT OF AFFECTS AND MOODS - SPEECH FLUENCY AND PAUSING

Clinicians' ratings of the negative syndrome of schizophrenia are high ly correlated with the rate and duration of the patient's pauses. To t est the degree to which pausing provides the cue for clinicians' impre ssions we selected audio recordings of interviews with schizophrenic p atients who showed moderate levels of negative signs and, through the use of a computerized digital editor, transformed the recordings by ei ther doubling or halving the duration of all of the patient's pauses. Other aspects of the patients' speech were unchanged. Ratings of flat affect were changed by the editing: reduced pause samples were seen as less flat and increased pause samples as flatter. Ratings of mood wer e not significantly changed. These results suggest that neuropsycholog ical factors that interfere with fluent speech may play a role in the pathogenesis of the negative syndrome. In addition, the edited tapes p rovide helpful materials for training clinicians to assess moods and a ffects.