Differences in stimulus generalization among psychiatric patients as a function of anxiety level-ego strength, sex, and time of testing.

80 nonorganic psychiatric patients dichotomized on both manifest anxiety-ego strength (MA-Es) level and sex were given a visual spatial stimulus generalization (SG) task within 4 days after admission and 9-15 days later. 2 SG measures and 2 measures of response latency were recorded at each time. Results showed that SG was not related to race, age, education, or admission status. Only time of testing was significantly related to SG and response latency, with all groups showing less generalization and shorter latencies from Time 1 to Time 2. The 4 experimental groups did not differ significantly on number of Ss responding at least once to each peripheral light, relative SG improvement, SG gradients, or latency gradients.