The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

Purpose or use of line contained one unreliable variable among 8, fill-in (38), which was
probably confused with the texture variable of the same study. Shade (33), a similar
variable, achieved acceptable reliability. Study 21 achieved a correlation coefficient of
only 0.32 on quality of line between 3 raters, whereas three other studies achieved
acceptable correlations and high agreements between 2 raters. The author of study 21
admits unresolved problems in definition and reports previous results of (0.73-0.95), so
the quality subcategory was considered reliable. The other marks subcategory (13
variables, all from study 38) was generally unreliable where decisions of degree were
made between similar variables; blotches, but not dabs (although they could be marked
present) or smears, could be reliably differentiated as used for form, mass, decoration
and texture (but not as used for line) so reliability was achieved only for presence of
blotches within the image.
Discrimination: From 27 reliable variables tested for discrimination properties, there
were only 5 differences reported among 3 reliable subcategories. There were differences
within patient groups of left or right brain damage and between patients with left brain
damage and controls in difficulty of producing angles and in number of acute angles,
within patient groups and between left brain damage and controls in right angles, but no
difference in obtuse angle production (35). There were no differences among these
groups or among schizophrenics and controls in number (35, 38) of lines, or among
schizophrenics and controls in length or quality of lines or presence of substitute marks
(38). Within groups, nuclear schizophrenics were reported to use more shading than
those with schizophreniform illnesses (33), but there were no differences in purpose of
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