ABSTRACT
Objectives: The present study was designed to investigate the automatic activation of semantic priming in schizophrenic patients
Method: 36 schizophrenic patients and 36 normal subjects participated in two experiments. In experiment one, the effect of semantic relation on identification of degraded targets was examined between a series of single prime words and single target words presented in a typical semantic priming paradigm. To restrict the priming to automatic processes, in experiment two, series of two primes were presented simultaneously instead of one. Both primes were related to the target, and the effect of semantic relation between two primes on identification of degraded targets was examined
Finding: In experiment one, both groups demonstrated semantic priming effect for related words there was no significant difference between the two groups. In experiment two, semantic relation between two primes resulted in a significant priming effect in normal subjects, but not in schizophrenic patients
Results: This study showed that schizophrenic subjects have difficulties in automatically activating related words in their semantic networks. Restricting semantic priming to automatic processes can suggest a way to resolve the inconsistencies in studies with schizo-phrenic subjects