Cognitive slippage

Cognitive slippage describes a disordered thought process in which links between items becomes unclear and trains of thought are disorganized. It is a symptom of several psychiatric diseases and mental disorders associated with cognition and formal thought disorders. Cognitive Slippage more common in individuals with a higher predisposition for Schizophrenia. It is not associated with a lower level of intelligence and the speech usually remains grammatically correct. Cognitive Slippage is manifested in patterns of speech, where categories and lists become overly broad as concepts unrelated at first glance become related through tangential connections.

An example of cognitive slippage might be as follows:

The inclusion of extraneous items in the listing is evidence of the cognitive slippage. While the concepts such as Toyota, Japan, Rising Sun, etc. are all related, the relation is no longer defined by the initial prompt. The cognitive slippage, however, causes the inability to disregard these extraneous connections and results in patterns of speech and association as seen here. In contrast, another disorder of speech, word salad is even more disorganized than the loose associations of cognitive slippage. Cognitive Slippage can cause speech to be confusing to a listener.

Cognitive Slippage is often measured through the Cognitive Slippage Scale (CSS), a 35 question test created by Miers and Raulin. Th presence of cognitive slippage is indicate by receiving a high score on this test. The test has been shown to be applicable and accurate to both clinical and nonclininal populations.

Examples of questions on this test are "Often when I am talking I feel that I am not making sense" and "Sometimes my thoughts just disappear."

It can be used alongside other tests to measure "psychosis proneness", or how vulnerable an individual is to developing schizophrenia or related disorders.

Cognitive slippage exists on a continuum from high to low levels and can be found in individuals with and without schizophrenia. However, high scores on the Cognitive Slippage Scale (CSS) have been shown to suggest an increased likelihood of an individual developing schizophrenia. Preliminary research also suggests that first-degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia also score higher on the CSS than people with no first-degree relation to someone with schizophrenia.

Schizotypy is used to define the continuum of personality characteristics that are vulnerable to developing schizophrenia. It was originally characterized by four main signs, one of which was cognitive slippage. Later the definition was narrowed to focus on two specific characteristics that were associated with increased likelihood of schizophrenia development: cognitive slippage and interpersonal aversiveness. 

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