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Titre du document / Document titleProverb comprehension
reconsidered : 'theory of mind' and the pragmatic use of languagein
schizophreniaAuteur(s) / Author(s)BRNE Martin (1) ; BODENSTEIN
Luise (1) ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)(1)
Center for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bochum,
Alexandrinenstr. 1,44791 Bochum, ALLEMAGNERsum /
AbstractBackground: For decades, impaired proverb comprehension has
been regarded as typicalof schizophrenic thought disorder. Testing
patients' proverb understanding has widelybeen abandoned, however,
due to poor reliability and validity of the assessmentprocedures.
Since the underlying cognitive deficit of impaired proverb
interpretationremained obscure, this study sought to determine the
relation of proverb understandingwith other cognitive domains,
particularly 'theory of mind' or 'mindreading', inschizophrenia.
Methods: 31 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were assessed
using a
novel German Proverb Test [Barth, A., Kfferle, B., 2001. Die
Entwicklung einesSprichworttests zur Erfassung konkretistischer
Denkstorungen bei schizophrenenPatienten. Nervenarzt 72, 853-858.],
a 'theory of mind' test battery, a variety of executivefunctioning
tests and verbal intelligence. Psychopathology was measured using
thePANSS [Kay, S.R., Opler, L.A., Lindenmayer, J.P., 1989. The
Positive and NegativeSyndrome Scale (PANSS): rationale and
standardisation. Br. J. Psychiatry 158 (suppl. 7),59-67.].
Patients' task performance was compared to a group of healthy
control persons.Results: 'Theory of mind', executive functioning
and intelligence were strongly correlatedwith patients' ability to
interpret proverbs correctly. In a regression analysis 'theory
ofmind' performance predicted, conservatively estimated, about 39%
of the variance ofproverb comprehension in the patient group.
Conclusions: The ability to interpret such
metaphorical speech that is typical of many proverbs crucially
depends on schizophrenicpatients' ability to infer mental states.
Future studies may further address differencesbetween schizophrenia
subtypes or the relation to specific symptom clusters.Revue /
Journal TitleSchizophrenia research ISSN 0920-9964Source /
Source2005, vol. 75, no2-3, pp. 233-239 [7 page(s) (article)] (1
p.1/4)Langue / LanguageAnglaisEditeur / PublisherElsevier Science,
Amsterdam, PAYS-BAS (1988) (Revue)Mots-cls anglais / English
KeywordsPsychosis ; Human ; Cognition ; Verbal comprehension ;
Metaphor ; Schizophrenia ;Language ; Pragmatics ; Theory of mind
;Mots-cls franais / French KeywordsPsychose ; Proverbe ; Homme ;
Cognition ; Comprhension verbale ; Mtaphore ;Schizophrnie ; Langage
; Pragmatique ; Thorie esprit ;
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Copyright 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Proverb comprehension reconsideredtheory of mind and the
pragmatic use oflanguage in schizophrenia
Martin Brne, and Luise BodensteinCenter for Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy, University of Bochum, Alexandrinenstr. 1,44791
Bochum, GermanyReceived 24 October 2004; revised 9 November 2004;
accepted 12 November 2004.Available online 13 December 2004.
Background
For decades, impaired proverb comprehension has been regarded as
typical ofschizophrenic thought disorder. Testing patients' proverb
understanding has widely been
abandoned, however, due to poor reliability and validity of the
assessment procedures.Since the underlying cognitive deficit of
impaired proverb interpretation remainedobscure, this study sought
to determine the relation of proverb understanding with
othercognitive domains, particularly theory of mind or mindreading,
in schizophrenia.Methods
31 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were assessed using a
novel German ProverbTest [Barth, A., Kfferle, B., 2001. Die
Entwicklung eines Sprichworttests zur Erfassungkonkretistischer
Denkstrungen bei schizophrenen Patienten. Nervenarzt 72, 853858.],
atheory of mind test battery, a variety of executive functioning
tests and verbalintelligence. Psychopathology was measured using
the PANSS [Kay, S.R., Opler, L.A.,Lindenmayer, J.P., 1989. The
Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS): rationaleand
standardisation. Br. J. Psychiatry 158 (suppl. 7), 5967.].
Patients' task performancewas compared to a group of healthy
control persons.Results
Theory of mind, executive functioning and intelligence were
strongly correlated withpatients' ability to interpret proverbs
correctly. In a regression analysis theory of mindperformance
predicted, conservatively estimated, about 39% of the variance of
proverbcomprehension in the patient group.Conclusions
The ability to interpret such metaphorical speech that is
typical of many proverbscrucially depends on schizophrenic
patients' ability to infer mental states. Future studiesmay further
address differences between schizophrenia subtypes or the relation
tospecific symptom clusters.
Keywords: Proverbs; Metaphor; Pragmatics; Theory of mind; Social
contract theory
