On Childhood Intellectual Decline of Adult Schizophrenics: A Reassessment of an Earlier Study.

An earlier study by the authors reported that children who become schizophrenic adults show a significant decline in intelligence-test performance between early and late childhood. The present study compares the earlier results with new control and standardization groups and determines that the previous conclusions were not justified. An earlier study (Lane & Albee, 1963) reported that school-age children who later become schizophrenic adults show a significant decline in intelligence-test performance between early and late childhood. Because a control group of 872 children from the same school system showed a slight gain in IQ score on the same two tests taken at the same ages, it was concluded that the decline in IQ represents a genuine decrease in intellectual function which distinguishes preschizophrenics from other children. The conclusions of this study have been cited by