Behavioral and physiological effects of examiner sex on process and reactive schizophrenics.

In the physiological (polygraph) data, the sex of the E (ES) interacted with the sex of the patient (PS) or the patient's process-reactive status (PR) in only 1 of 16 analyses. Only in the heart-rate variability data was the ES by PS interaction significant (p less than .001). Sex of the E had an appreciable effect in two of the three measures of associative disturbance. The ES by PS interaction was significant (p less than .025) in the recall measure of instability of though processes, and the same interaction neared significance (p less than .06) in the multiword response measure of associative disturbance. It appears that the sex of the E should be considered in studies that use measures of associative disturbance and perhaps when heart-rate variability measures are used.