Selective attention and response competition in schizophrenic patients.

Studied visual distractibility in 18 schizophrenic inpatients (aged 19–45 yrs). Ss had to respond to target stimuli while they ignored the visual context, which was either congruent, neutral, or incongruent with respect to the target stimulus. Schizophrenic Ss and 18 healthy controls performed this flanker task. Schizophrenic Ss did not show increased distractibility compared with controls, and both groups showed the same attenuation of visual context effects when the spatial distance between target and flanker stimuli was increased. The 2 groups showed the same amount of interference by incongruent visual context. When flanker and target stimuli were redundant, the responses of schizophrenic Ss were less accelerated than those of controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Accession Number: 1995-17674-001. PMID: 7824673 Partial author list: First Author & Affiliation: Kopp, Bruno; Humboldt U Berlin, Psychological Inst, Germany. Release Date: 19950501. Publication Type: Journal (0100), Peer Reviewed Journal (0110). Format Covered: Print. Document Type: Journal Article. Language: English. Major Descriptor: Distractibility; Schizophrenia; Selective Attention. Minor Descriptor: Contextual Associations; Response Parameters. Classification: Schizophrenia & Psychotic States (3213). Population: Human (10). Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older) (300). Methodology: Empirical Study. Page Count: 11. Issue Publication Date: Aug, 1994.