Cognitive Impairment - Disordered Thinking

The symptoms of cognitive impairment include a lack of attention, memory impairment, impaired information processing, and an anomalous association between words and sentences. Sometimes this becomes so extreme that speech becomes incoherent, a condition commonly referred to as "word salad."  Patients with a thought disorder are likely to connect words because of their similarity of sound, rather than by meaning. These are known as "clang associations."  The ability to abstract information may also be impaired. However, vocabulary and spatial abilities, such as map reading, are usually not damaged.  Memory impairment in schizophrenia is likely to involve the inability to connect an event and its source into a complete and whole memory.  A patient may recall a specific event but be unable to remember where, when, or how it took place.  Cognitive impairment often occurs before full-blown psychotic symptoms develop.