Week 6: Turning it Upside Down Flashcards
What do patients with schizophrenia demonstrate on most clinical neuropsychological tests?
Marked impairments, suggesting a generalized form of cognitive impairment.
What aspects of cognitive function may be relatively spared in schizophrenia?
Aspects of attention, procedural memory, and emotional processing.
Why is the study of cognitive performance in schizophrenia important?
It helps isolate specific cognitive processes that are impaired and informs models of impaired cognition.
How have cognitive measures been used in schizophrenia research?
As predictors of functional outcomes, targets for interventions, and markers of genetic effects.
What do meta-analyses suggest about cognitive impairment in schizophrenia?
Patients demonstrate substantial impairment across many cognitive measures, often one standard deviation below average.
What is one hypothesis about the generalized cognitive impairment observed in schizophrenia?
It could result from impairments in a limited number of cognitive processes, such as attention and working memory.
How does attention play a role in cognitive function?
It modulates cognitive systems, aids perception, guides working memory encoding, and facilitates response selection.
What have studies using the Posner attentional orienting task revealed about schizophrenia?
Patients can orient spatial attention as robustly as healthy controls, despite slower overall response times.
What does research suggest about selective attention in schizophrenia?
Patients can use cues to direct attention and control access to working memory similarly to controls.
How do patients with schizophrenia perform on visual search paradigms?
They can focus on relevant items and ignore irrelevant ones, showing intact attentional selection.
