Differences in auditory detection performance between schizophrenics and normals were examined in terms of the attentional processes involved. Each of 40 ~s (20 schizophrenics categorized along the dimensions of paranoia, premorbidity, and acuteness; and 20 hospital technical staff) were presented with 30 50-trial blocks of a tone detection task using 6 auditory ensembles consisting of 2 tones apiece separated by varying . ,. frequency bands. Tones were masked by white noise and presented in a free-running trial manner. The commonly found decrement in detection performance with normal subjects as the tones in the ensembles become more widely separated was replicated. But the differing frequency separations between the tones in the ensembles also yielded performance differences within. the various schizophrenic subclasses (except the chronic/acute subclass), as well as between schizophrenics and normals. These differences can be attributed to the attentional mechanisms of scanning and beam width as there were no cognitive component·s involved in the experimental task •
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-2795 |
| Date | 01 January 1973 |
| Creators | Gimpel, Esther Ann |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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