Effects of Cognitive Load on Semantic Priming in Patients With Schizophrenia

Schizophrenic and control participants received 2 blocks of trials in each experiment. In 1 block they were exposed to regular priming trials (doctor-nurse), and in another block a nonlexical probe was presented at prime onset for 40 ms. Regardless of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), the schizophrenic patients showed hyperpriming when no distrator was present. Paying attention to the distracting stimulus reduced priming in the patient group irrespective of SOA. Under certain situations, the reduction in priming appeared even when participants were asked to ignore the distracting stimulus. Thus, even a nonsemantic distractor may be detrimental to schizophrenic patients' language processing. That SOA did not modulate the reduction in priming effect is consistent with the suggestion that attentional resources are required even with short prime-target intervals.