Investigation of the associative network in schizophrenia using the semantic priming paradigm.

The semantic priming version of a lexical decision task was utilized in order to distinguish between automatic and controlled attentional processes in schizophrenia. 12 schizophrenic patients, 12 psychiatric control patients, and 12 normal subjects completed this lexical decision task. Although the overall reaction times were longer for the schizophrenic subjects, all groups manifested semantic facilitation on the lexical decision task. The presence of semantic facilitation in schizophrenic patients supports the theory that automatic attentional processing is intact in schizophrenia.