During a series of investigations into the thinking of patients suffering from psychoses occurring in the senium it was noted that there was an increased tendency to perseverate. This was particularly obvious when the patients were checked with regard to their capacity to deal with abstractions by having them reproduce designs. Since all the patients under investigation showed in varying degree involvement of their recent memory, tests were designed to clarify a possible relationship between the defects of recent memory and the increased tendency to perseverate. Later it was noted that these patients tended to show a progressive distortion of the memorized test material, and consequently a second study was set up to deal with this problem.
PROCEDURE
Since the patients showed considerable intellectual deterioration, the usual X-Y type of perseveration test, originated by Wynn Jones1 and elaborated by others (Stephenson1a and Cameron2), could not be employed.