Neuropsychology 1996, Vol. 10, .No. 1,22-31 Copyright 1996 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0894-4105/96/S3.00 The "3 Rs" and Neuropsychological Function in Schizophrenia: An Empirical Test of the Matching Fallacy William S. Kremen Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics and Brockton-West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center John R. Pepple Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics and Brockton-West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center Larry J. Seidman and Stephen V. Faraone Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics and Massachusetts Mental Health Center Michael J. Lyons Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics and Boston University Ming T. Tsuang Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics and Massachusetts Mental Health Center Wide Range Achievement Test—Revised Reading and Spelling scores appear to be largely unimpaired in schizophrenia patients. In accordance with the "matching fallacy" hypothesis, chronic schizophrenia patients performed as well as or better than equally educated controls. Diagnosis x Education interactions showed greater advantages in college-educated patients over college-educated controls. On the basis of a residual score approach, schizophrenia patients showed substantial deficits in Arithmetic and IQ compared with what would be predicted, given their Reading or Spelling scores. A comparison of effect sizes for the discrepancy scores suggested that Reading or Spelling scores provide a better estimate of expected ability than parental education; thus, the former should be useful for matching controls and schizophrenia patients. The authors discuss questions concerning sampling differences, low level of education, and learning disabilities. In seeming contradiction to the basic tenets of research design, "the matching fallacy" (Meehl, 1970) has suggested that it may be misleading to match individuals with schizophre- nia and normal individuals on characteristics such as educa- tion, current IQ, or socioeconomic status (SES). Education and SES are indeed likely to be strongly correlated with performance and premorbid ability. However, schizophrenia may precipitate a premature end to an educational career, thereby causing individuals to fall short of their educational potential. The same may be true for occupational attainment. These considerations suggest that it would be inappropriate to use demographically based estimates of premorbid intellectual functioning (e.g., Barona, Reynolds, & Chastain, 1984; Wilson et al., 1978) because such measures would be likely to cause systematic mismatching of theoretically expected general intel- lectual ability. Accordingly, at equivalent levels of education, individuals with schizophrenia might perform better than con- trols on a valid measure of expected intellectual ability. William S. Kremen, Stephen V. Faraone, and John R. Pepple, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Brockton-West Roxbury Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, and Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiol- ogy and Genetics, Boston, Massachusetts; Larry J. Seidman, Depart- ment of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, and Neuropsychology Laboratory, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston; Michael J. Lyons, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epide- miology and Genetics, Boston, and Department of Psychology, Boston University; Ming T. Tsuang, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Brockton- West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, and Department of Epidemiology, Har- vard School of Public Health. Preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH43518-01 (MERIT Award) and MH46318, the Veterans Affairs Medical Research and Health Ser- vices Research and Development Programs, and a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award. The manuscript was partially prepared while Ming T. Tsuang was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, which is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry Endowment. A draft of this article was presented at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 1993. We thank Gwen Barnes, Deborha Catt, Tova Ferro, Lisa Gaebel, David Goldfinger, Robin Green, Keith Hawkins, Denise Leville, Cathy Monaco, Theresa Pai, Anne Shore, and Rob Trachtenberg for their contributions to the projects; Anna Mitchell, David Osser, and Lany Albert of Taunton State Hospital for assistance in recruiting participants; and Garrett Fitzmaurice for statistical consultation. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to William S. Kremen, who is now at the Biological Psychiatry Treatment and Research Center, Napa State Hospital, 2100 Napa-Vallejo High- way, Napa, California 94558. 22 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.