Auditory span of apprehension deficits in schizophrenia

Previous research on the visual span of apprehension procedure has interpreted the performance deficits commonly demonstrated by schizophrenic subjects as indicative of a core central processing deficit. Little research has directly investigated the existence of similar information-processing deficits in an auditory modality in these patients. In the present study, groups of schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic patients and a comparison group of normal subjects reported the occurrence of a target syllable in the presence of background speech. Schizophrenic subjects performed as well as subjects from both comparison groups in the simpler background conditions, but were significantly less able to identify the target in the presence of auditory distracters when greater amounts of information were available to be processed. These data support the nonmodality specific nature of the deficit.