More evidence for generalized poor performance in facial emotion perception in schizophrenia.
Previous studies showing that schizophrenic patients have a deficit in the ability to perceive facial expressions of emotion in others often have not used a differential deficit design and standardized measures of emotion perception. Using standardized and cross-validated measures in a differential deficit design, S. L. Kerr and J. M. Neale (1993) found no evidence for a deficit specific to emotion perception among unmedicated schizophrenic patients. The present study replicated and extended the findings of Kerr and Neale in a sample of medicated schizophrenic patients. Results showed that medicated patients performed more poorly than controls overall; however, they performed no worse on facial emotion perception tasks than on a matched control task. These findings support Kerr and Neale's conclusion that schizophrenic patients do not have a differential deficit in facial emotion perception ability. Future research should examine the nature of schizophrenic patients generalized poor performance on tests of facial emotion perception.
Salem
J E
JE
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA.
Kring
A M
AM
Kerr
S L
SL
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology