Cognitive flexibility, selective attention and semantic verbal fluency in three schizophrenic dimensions: Psychotic, negative and disorganisation

The aim of this study was to explore specific pattern of cognitive dysfunctions related to three schizophrenic dimensions: disorganisation, negative and psychotic, resulting from principal component analyse applied to PANSS's items. We assessed executive functions/dysfunctions in 42 schizophrenics (APA, 1994). Data suggest that principal component analyse performed on the 30 items of PANSS identify homogenous schizophrenia dimensions. Results show that disorganisation dimension was associated with low performances in selective attention (Stroop test), negative dimension were associated to low performances in cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting test) and in semantic verbal fluency. However, no significant correlation was found between psychotic dimension and cognitive dysfunctions. On the whole, our study contributes to the comprehension of specific patterns of cognitive disorders in the schizophrenic dimensions. Results is detailed and discussed. (C) 2009 Societe francaise de psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.