Selective attention and levels of coding in schizophrenia

Abstract

Traditional explanations of schizophrenics' cognitive deficits have considered faulty selective attention as a single stage, categorical phenomenon. This study examined selective attention as a process that operates with varying degrees of efficiency throughout information processing, including the recoding of stimuli from the perceptual register. The results suggested both a deficiency in the reservoir of attentional capacity for schizophrenics and a greater depletion of such capacity.