It is recognized that cognitive impairments of attention, memory, thinking and executive functions are a fundamental feature of the psychology of schizophrenia. The purpose of this study is to discover what characteristics of information processing are inherent to first-episode paranoid schizophrenia. We consider a cognitive style as a regulative aspect of information processing. The investigation included the study of cognitive styles by parameters of fi eld-dependence / field-independence, constricted / fl exible cognitive control, reflection / impulsiveness, wide / narrow range of equivalence in fi rst-episode schizophrenia. We have recruited 80 participants with first-episode paranoid schizophrenia from the patients of a psychiatry clinic (39 women) (age range: 18-39) and 50 participants without mental illness (25 women) (age range: 18-39) to study the cognitive styles. Exclusion criteria for this study included diseases affecting brain function: substance abuse, hypertension, metabolic disorders, neurological disorders, and head trauma with loss of consciousness. Then we have moved a statistical analyses with ANOVA to find out statistically signifi cant diff erences in cognitive style characteristics. As a result we found out that the cognitive style as a regulative aspect of information processing is damaged in schizophrenia. This damage show itself in an extreme degree of the intensity of cognitive style characteristics. So first-episode schizophrenic patients are characterized as fi xed field-dependence, impulsive, with constricted cognitive control, and with tendency to form many small groups based on formal, situational and subjective criteria. In this article this impairment of regulative aspect of information processing is considered a main mechanism of counterfactual thinking in schizophrenia, and counterfactual thinking in schizophrenia is considered as a consequence of impairments in information processing.

Статья содержит описание эмпирического исследования когнитивно-стилевых особенностей больных с параноидной формой шизофрении. Результаты исследования свидетельствуют о крайней степени выраженности и фиксированности когнитивно-стилевых свойств у данной категории психически больных, что обусловливает низкую продуктивность и недостаточную регуляцию процесса обработки информации, в том числе в ходе избирательного использования данных прошлого опыта.