Positive Formal Thought Disorder is the group of items within Andreasen's Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) that describes disorganized speech — the observable output that clinicians read as disordered thinking. These items overlap the standalone TLC scale but are defined here fresh from the SAPS framework.
Every item is an instance-mode span-annotation target: each corresponds to an identifiable utterance type an annotator (or an agent) can highlight and label in the subject's speech — ideas slipping off track (Derailment), oblique replies (Tangentiality), incomprehensible speech (Incoherence), faulty inference (Illogicality), over-detailed but goal-reaching speech (Circumstantiality), rapid hard-to-interrupt speech (Pressure of Speech), topic changes cued by nearby stimuli (Distractible Speech), and sound-governed word choice (Clanging). Some items overlap closely — see each item's Contrastive Learning section. Rate over the interview sample, scaling proportionally for shorter samples.