Is Cognitive Performance Affecting Your Social Life? Cognitive Performance and its Relation to Social Functioning in Psychometric Schizotypy

poster abstractInterpreting cues and appropriately performing in social situations are two skills that are crucial for an individual to function in a modern society. Assessing social functioning and social cognition are used to measure these abilities in first-episode and schizophrenia research. The current study addresses the relationship between social cognition, neurocognition, and social functioning in participants with psychometric schizotypy; a cluster of traits thought to denote increased risk of developing psychosis. Undergraduate students pre-screened for schizotypy were tested for social cognitive and neurocognitive deficits, and lower social functioning. Significant positive correlations were observed between sub-tests of neurocognition and the social cognition measures. The current study shows that there are some subareas of neurocognition that are more closely related to social cognition than others. Independent T-tests reveal that individuals with psychometric schizotypy exhibit lower social functioning. Also, within the schizotypy group, participants report lower social functioning, including in their ability to create and maintain romantic relationships. Future research on this topic could try to find further explanations for social functioning deficits, as they do not appear to be explained by problems with social cognition

Using Lexical Analysis in Schizophrenia: Can the Words Patients Use Inform Our Understanding of their Internal Experiences?

poster abstractThe words that people choose convey important information about their internal states, feelings, and views of the world around them. Lexical analysis is a fast, reliable method of assessing word usage that can be implemented to scan long narratives following speech transcription. It has been used to link speech content with psychopathological symptoms. However, few studies have applied lexical analysis to examine speech content in individuals with schizophrenia. In this exploratory study, we investigated whether positive affect words, negative affect words, and/or social words were related to psychotic symptoms or self-stigma in a schizophrenia cohort (n = 46). Individuals with schizophrenia were recruited from local community mental health and Veterans Affairs clinics. Speech was recorded during a psychiatric interview designed to elicit open-ended responses. Following transcription, lexical analysis was performed using a validated measure that derives percentage scores for positive affect, negative affect, and social word usage. Trained clinicians rated psychotic symptoms using overall and factor (positive, negative, thought disorder, hostility, emotional discomfort) scores. Finally, a self-report scale was utilized to assess self-stigma. We observed that positive affect word usage was associated with hostility and thought disorder symptoms. Negative affect words were significantly associated with overall psychotic symptoms, as well as hostility and emotional discomfort symptoms. Social words were inversely associated with negative symptoms. Surprisingly, word usage in affective or social categories was not related to positive symptoms or self-stigma. This is one of the first studies to elucidate how word usage is linked to internal states in schizophrenia. Future studies should be conducted to confirm these findings. Researchers should also examine whether affective or social word usage in this population predicts which individuals will exhibit the greatest reductions in psychotic symptoms and self-stigma following evidence-based treatment

Lexical Analysis in Schizophrenia: How Emotion and Social Word Use Informs Our Understanding of Clinical Presentation

Background The words people use convey important information about internal states, feelings, and views of the world around them. Lexical analysis is a fast, reliable method of assessing word use that has shown promise for linking speech content, particularly in emotion and social categories, with psychopathological symptoms. However, few studies have utilized lexical analysis instruments to assess speech in schizophrenia. In this exploratory study, we investigated whether positive emotion, negative emotion, and social word use was associated with schizophrenia symptoms, metacognition, and general functioning in a schizophrenia cohort. Methods Forty-six participants generated speech during a semi-structured interview, and word use categories were assessed using a validated lexical analysis measure. Trained research staff completed symptom, metacognition, and functioning ratings using semi-structured interviews. Results Word use categories significantly predicted all variables of interest, accounting for 28% of the variance in symptoms and 16% of the variance in metacognition and general functioning. Anger words, a subcategory of negative emotion, significantly predicted greater symptoms and lower functioning. Social words significantly predicted greater metacognition. Conclusions These findings indicate that lexical analysis instruments have the potential to play a vital role in psychosocial assessments of schizophrenia. Future research should replicate these findings and examine the relationship between word use and additional clinical variables across the schizophrenia-spectrum