COMMUNICATION DEVIANCE, ATTENTION, AND SCHIZOTYPY IN PARENTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS

Singer and Wynne's measures of communication deviance were adapted for use with conversational speech and applied to audiotaped speech sampl es of schizophrenic patients, their parents, and matched nonpsychiatri c control subjects. The parents demonstrated levels of language distur bance similar to those of the patients and higher than those of contro ls. Language deviance in the parents was positively associated with di stractibility on a matched-task digit-span measure of attention and wi th severity scores on a separate schizotypy scale. These findings are discussed with respect to possible cognitive variables underlying the language disturbances and their potential relevance to schizophrenic e tiology.