SCHIZOPHRENIC INDIVIDUALS COGNITIVE-FUNCTIONING AND PERFORMANCE IN INTERPERSONAL INTERACTIONS AND SKILLS TRAINING PROCEDURES

The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between schizophrenic individuals' cognitive functioning and their performanc e in interpersonal interactions and skills training procedures. Thirty schizophrenic individuals and lj non-mentally ill individuals were ad ministered two versions of the Continuous Performance Test, the Span o f Apprehension Test, the Digit Span Distractibility Test, the Assessme nt of Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills, and three elemental skills training tasks. Vigilance level as measured by the Continuous Perform ance Teal was substantially correlated with performance in both rolepl ayed interactions and skills training tasks, while recall memory as me asured by the Digit Span Distractibility Test was correlated with perf ormance in the skills training tasks independently of vigilance level. Thus, the results indicated that the cognitive dysfunctions of schizo phrenia are associated with poorer social functioning and with reduced performance in the elemental procedures that constitute efforts to im prove that functioning.