ON PERCEPTION OF COMPLEX SOUND IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND MANIA

Eleven schizophrenic psychotic and 11 manic psychotic patients have be en compared with each other and wi a reference group of 34 dentists wi th respect to their emotional experience of seven complex nonverbal so unds. A rating form was used which measures three factors of emotional perception: tension - relaxation (factor I), gaiety - gloom (factor I I), and attraction - repulsion (factor III). Analyses of variance of t he factor scores revealed main tendencies between the psychopathologic al groups in factor I and III, i.e. schizophrenic psychotics rated the sounds generally as more tense and more attractive than manic psychot ics. The manic psychotics rated the sounds as generally less tense and very much more attractive than the other groups. In factor II the man ic psychotics rated one piece as significantly more gay than the other groups. It is discussed in what ways these differences of complex sou nd perception may be related to characteristic symptoms of the psychop athological states. No convincing evidence may be drawn from this stud y supporting the assumption that the two psychopathological groups mig ht differ in a specific way in relation to any elementary structural p roperty of the sounds.