WISCONSIN CARD SORTING TEST AND STROOP TEST PERFORMANCES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - A SHARED CONSTRUCT

The Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and Stroop test were administer ed to 25 schizophrenic patients in order to better identify and unders tand more specific processing mechanisms involved in executive dysfunc tions and to investigate their hypothetical involvement in symptom for mation. Data show that for as much as the two tests employed measured executive functions in terms of mental control and cognitive flexibili ty, our findings seemed to indicate shared or interconnected mechanism s. No correlations were seen between the psychopathological evaluation and any of the neuropsychological indexes. The use of the Stroop task could provide a more readily cognitive analysis in terms of specific processing mechanisms, at the basis of WCST impairment in schizophreni a. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.