Harvey, Moriarty, Friedman, White, Parrella, Mohs, and Davids (2000) conducted a study to analyze the preservation of cognitive functions in geriatric patients with lifelong schizophrenia in hopes of discovering the success rate of long-term institutionalization. The overall goal of the study was to obtain enough data to compare scores on numerous cognitive tasks in the geriatric schizophrenia population and a population of healthy older adults. Their experimental group consisted of 165 volunteers and they were individually matched with an individual from the control group based on the same age and education level. Symptoms of schizophrenia were examined using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; PANS. It contains thirty items including seven items assessing positive symptoms, seven items assessing negative symptoms and sixteen items assessing their general psychopathology. The total scores obtained on the positive and negative subscales were used as dependent variables in this study. Harvey et al (2000) also used word list learning and delayed recall, pranix drawing, the modified Boston naming test, and the CERAD to assess cognitive function of both. their control and experimental populations. Word list learning and delayed recall is a list of ten word items that is presented to the subject over three separate trials. After each trial, the subject is asked to freely recall the words from the list. After a delay, which is filled by the pranix drawing task, participants are asked to recall the word list again. The dependent variable for this task is the number of words recalled over the three trials and the number of words recalled after the delay. Scores ranged from 0 to 20 depending on...... middle of paper ......ric diseases until old age. The study results demonstrated that members of the experimental group had lower cognitive functioning than those in the control group, opening the door for further research into the reasons for this trend. Basically, the knowledge I take away from this study is that, for some undetermined reason, older adults who have suffered from schizophrenia for most of their lives do not function as well in terms of cognition as those who have not suffered of schizophrenia. PD, Moriarty PJ, Friedman JI, White L, Parrella M, Mohs RC, and Davis KL (2000). Differential preservation of cognitive functions in geriatric patients with lifelong chronic schizophrenia: fewer reading impairments compared to other skill areas. Biological Psychiatry, 47(11), 962-968. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(00)00245-6