Cognitive slippage is considered a milder and sub-clinical presentation of formal thought disorder observed via unusual use of language.
Cognitive slippage is typically assessed in the context of mental health evaluations, but there is ongoing debate about how to best quantify this type of unusual language usage in research settings.
[3] Cognitive slippage is supposed to exist on a continuum which can be observed in its most extreme forms among some individuals with schizophrenia (e.g., word salad).
He coined the term "cognitive slippage" to describe a more mild form of thought disorder that he believed was still relevant.
[12] He also contemplated the possibility that cognitive slippage could stem from different underlying causes based on the disorder it was a part of.
The CSS is composed of 35 self-reported true or false questions intended to identify speech deficits and disorganized, confused thinking.
[13] The reliability of the CSS was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, a coefficient between 0 and 1 that indicates that the items on a scale have greater covariance as it approaches 1.
[13] In 2013, a study conducted by Loas, Dimassi, Monetes, and Yon proposed that validity could also be assessed by comparing the CSS results of healthy first-degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia to those without it.
In considering the genetic element of schizophrenia, researchers have examined the presence of symptoms, such as cognitive slippage, in first degree relatives.
For their purposes, they defined "cognitive slippage" to include associative disturbances, difficulties in thinking, and errors in reasoning.
Thus individuals that do not meet full diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, yet fall on the spectrum of schizotypy, still exhibit high levels of cognitive slippage.
By targeting referential thinking, a measurable behavior, the idea was the scale could detect schizotypy based on the presence of cognitive slippage.
A study was conducted using the Rorschach test to evaluate ego differences between individuals with borderline and narcissistic personality disorders.
Researchers suggest the slippage results from the narcissist attempting to combine idealized components of an object into a cohesive entity.
[6] In addition to inclusion as diagnostic criteria, the presence of cognitive slippage as a form of formal thought disorder is considered to be associated with psychosis proneness.
[21] Martin and Chapman (1982) determined that college students at risk for psychosis displayed signs of cognitive slippage on a referential communication task.
[22] Additionally, Edell (1987) reinforced the idea that although individuals with sub-clinical psychopathology exhibit more severe thought disorder on unstructured tests, they perform relatively normally on more structured measures of cognition.
[23] Dykens, Volkman, and Glick (1991) considered the relationship between thought disorder and high-functioning adult autism by utilizing both objective and projective measures.
To explain this, they suggest that cognitive slippage is rooted in difficulty with complex perceptual processing, a known feature of autism.
[7] In response to implications that cognitive dysfunctions were rooted in eating disorder etiology, researchers Strauss and Ryan (1988) conducted a study to compare the rates of logical errors, cognitive slippage, and conceptual complexity among individuals with eating disorders compared to their healthy counterparts.
For the purposes of the CFQ, however, they used this term to refer to lapses in attention, difficulty processing information, memory issues, perception problems, and complications in decision-making.
Yates, Hannell, and Lippett (1985) designed a study to evaluate the predictive value of the CFQ as a means to identify psychological vulnerability under stressful conditions, such as during a test.