Investigating theory of mind in schizophrenia: influence of verbalization in disorganized and non-disorganized patients

The ability to attribute intentions to others was studied in 13 disorganize d and 13 non-disorganized schizophrenic patients, 13 depressed and 13 norma l controls. Subjects were asked to complete 28 comic strips requiring theor y of mind skills by choosing one out of three answer cards. The answer card s were simple pictures in a first condition and short sentences in a second condition. This study, which used the cognitive neuropsychological approac h, underlies the existence of a link between disorganization patterns in sc hizophrenia and a deficit in the attribution of intentions to others, indep endently of the pictorial or verbal form of the mode of answering. In addit ion, results show that the non-disorganized schizophrenic group, depressed and normal controls perform similarly in both pictorial/verbal conditions. The influence of the absence/presence of verbal material on a task investig ating theory of mind in schizophrenia is discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.