Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T07:32:15.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Where the magic breaks down: Boundaries and the “focus-of-attention” in schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Robert D. Oades
Affiliation:
Biopsychology Group, University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45147 Essen, Germanyoades@uni-essen-debjemel@excite.com www.biopsychology.uni-essen.de
Boutheina Jemel
Affiliation:
Biopsychology Group, University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45147 Essen, Germanyoades@uni-essen-debjemel@excite.com www.biopsychology.uni-essen.de

Abstract

The boundaries, the influences on, and consequences of a short-term memory (STM) capacity of 4 leads us to consider global versus local processing. We argue that in schizophrenia cognitive problems can lie partly in pre-conscious automatic selective attention and partly with the speed of processing in later controlled processes (including compound STM). The influence of automatic attentional mechanisms may be under-estimated in normal psychology and explain the loss of the magic 4 in schizophrenia.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)