Cognitive Functioning in Schizophrenia

Abstract

It has long been accepted that inadequate or abnormal cognitive performance is a characteristic of those patients described as schizophrenic (Cameron, 1938, 1939; Goldstein, 1939). A number of theories have been advanced to suggest that the basic deficit underlying this abnormal performance lies in impaired information processing. McGhie (1969, 1970) and Payne (1960) consider the defect to be in the filter that normally operates to exclude irrelevant stimuli, while Yates (1966a, 1966b) suggests that the impairment may reflect a slowed rate of information transfer in the primary processing channel. Hawks and Marshall (1971) also argue for slowed processing, but although they talk about overload due to inappropriately filtered input they appear to identify their position with Broen's (1968) response interference theory.