Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify whether the schizophrenic patients are deficient in automatic processing or controlled processing. In experiment 1, the patients were put to the test by the picture-word Stroop task used to determine if the automatic processing was impaired. The subjects were two group: 15 schizophrenic patients and 15 normal persons. The result of this experiment revealed that both groups showed Stroop effect. Between these two groups, however, there were some differences in reaction patterns. In experiment 2, controlled processing in schizophrenic patients was examined by the decision task to determine whether two stimuli given at once were consistent or not depending on the different level of processing. The subjects were 15 schizophrenic patients and 15 normal persons. The result of experiment 2 also showed some differences in four reaction patterns between these groups although the controlled processing in schizophrenic patients still remained the same as the one in normal group.