-*ASSOCIATION (PSYCHOLOGICAL/. ASSOCIATION TESTS. *SCHIZOPHRENIA. THOUGHT Identifiers-Restricted Association Tests

The associative behavior of 24 male chronic schizophrenics and 24 normal control subjects (male) equated for age and educational level was investigated. free and restricted associations were obtained to analyze the organizational aspects of associative behavior as well as the number of unique or common responses per task. response repetitions under different task instructions, and agreement in responses among both groups of sects. The associations of schizophrenics were more variable than those of normW subjects especially on tasks which restricted most the choice of responses. Agreement in responding between normal and schizophrenic subjects was markedly lower when compared with that between high and low creative subjects or with one-year test-retest data of a heterogeneous group. Repetition of responses given to the same stimuli under different instructions was markedly higher for schizophrenics. and thus, the degree of task/response differentiation was reduced. The restricted associations overlapped with free associations more markedly for schizophrenics. but the general structure of a conceptual semantic space was about the same for both groups. The authors feel that when explicit constraint i