title: The ecological validity of everyday cognition in hospitalized patients with serious mental illness.
abstract: In 47 tertiary inpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, we report on the extent to which everyday cognition (EC), as represented by tasks utilizing naturalistic stimuli or commonly encountered problems, accounts for variation in daily functioning. Patients underwent interview-based measures of psychiatric symptoms, nurses' observations of functioning, and measures of EC and traditional cognition (TC). Our results indicate that EC accounts for "real-world" functioning above that of TC and psychiatric symptoms. This observation supports the utility of incorporating salient measures that rely upon common experience and accumulated knowledge structure into existent test batteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. aethornt@sfu.ca
authors.forename: Allen E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.forename: Hayley
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kristinsson
authors.forename: Vanessa G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: DeFreitas
authors.forename: Wendy Loken
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Thornton
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires