Training Deictic Relational Responding in People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia

Background

Research has suggested that people diagnosed with schizophrenia often exhibit social disinterest and a poor understanding of the beliefs and intentions of others.

Method

A within-subject multiple probe design was combined with a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Training occurred across simple, reversed, and double-reversed deictic relations.

Results

Increasingly complex deictic relational responses were acquired and mastered by all participants. Generalization to Theory of Mind perspective taking measures is suggested and evidenced by increased performance by all participants on the Deceptive Container Task and Hinting Task.

Conclusions

This study extends recent findings in the functional contextual literature by establishing complex deictic relational responding in 3 adult males diagnosed with schizophrenia and mild–moderate intellectual disability. Further support is provided for the notion that deictic relations are involved in the development and maintenance of perspective taking