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The ability to control the size of the attentional focus and thus to modulate processing efficiency was investigated using simple reaction times in central vision in 17 chronic schizophrenic patients and 17 normal control subjects. The size of the attentional focus was manipulated by varying the size of a central box (i.e., a pre-cue), where the imperative stimulus appeared. In accordance with previous studies, in normal controls reaction time increased with box size. In contrast, in schizophrenic patients reaction time did not depend on box size. That is, schizophrenic patients did not show the inverse relation between size of the box and speed of processing, which is observed in normal controls. These results suggest that a deficit in controlling the size of the attentional focus is a basic impairment in chronic schizophrenia. It was also found that schizophrenics are more susceptible than controls to paracontrast.

More and more full‐text daily newspapers are becoming available online. This increase in supply, led by the English‐speaking press, whose language is spoken or at least read by the largest number of people, is linked to several factors. The first of these, naturally, is the development of processing capability which enables large volumes of data to be stored and increases the speed of processing; secondly there is the introduction of new technologies in the newspaper business (photocomposition etc.) which has facilitated the formation of this type of databank. In presenting the online availability of full‐text daily newspapers, the author first identifies the characteristics of the international market, then defines the different components of the reader/newspaper relationship and finally provides a survey, by country, of the titles available throughout the world, analysing the differences between hosts.

• In recent years, the idea that schizophrenia involves a primary disturbance of the higher cognitive (ie, cortical) thinking processes has been challenged by investigators who have shown that there may be a primary disturbance in schizophrenia in the early stages of information processing that occurs during the first few hundred milliseconds after the stimulus reaches the sense organs. Among the hypothesized early information processing deficits are deficiencies in iconic storage (a brief peripheral memory store) and slowness of processing from iconic storage to a more permanent memory system. Three experiments were conducted using tachistoscopically presented stimuli in order to evaluate these two stages of information processing (iconic storage and speed of processing) in schizophrenic and control subjects. Results converged in supporting the hypothesis that, independent of iconic storage and sensory registration, slow information processing is a relatively stable deficit of schizophrenic patients with a poor prognosis. The schizophrenic patients with a good prognosis had a similar deficit, which was reversible. Results are discussed as they relate to the early information processing deficit theories of schizophrenia.

Photomicrographs may be made on bromide paper with advantages in speed of processing and cost, which permit it to be used for preliminary checks of set-up.