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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

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