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Neal R. Swerdlow, David L. Braff, Heidi Hartston, William Perry, & Mark A. Geyer
Univeristy of California, San Diego; Department of Psychiatry
The scientific definition: The retarded acquisition of a conditioned response that occurs if the subject being tested is preexposed to the to-be-conditioned stimulus (CS) without the paired unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
The layman definition: when a person "ignores" a repetitive, irrelevant neutral stimulus that doesn't predict a, or relate to, an important event (until it is important).
This is what the researchers set out to investigate.
Based on clinical observations:
Due to preexposure and lack of latent inhibition, schizophrenics should be able to more quickly identify conditioned (former neutral stimuli)
1. Schizophrenia patients required more trials
than did control subjects in identifying the conditioned stimulus even with preexposure (criterion).
2. Auditory task was not replicated and did not prove significant, but that could be due to:
3. Problems with this research compared to previous research:
In the auditory task: there was a significant difference in overall task performance between control and schizophrenic groups (Z=2.28, p<0.05).
In the visual task (considered to be easier): there was no significant difference detected between control and schizophrenic groups in overall task performance. However, preexposure had a significant effect on both groups.
Retrospectively, in comparing schizophrenics that smoked to those that did not, there was no significant difference in latent inhibition.
Works Cited
Braff, D.L, Geyer, M.A, Hartston, H., Perry, W., & Swerdlow N.R. (1996).
Latent inhibition in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 20. 91-103.
Tracey Axisa and the psych gang. (2010). Latent inhibition. Retrieved from YouTube.
Preexposure phase: Subjects fitted with earphones and instructed
to listen to a series of nonsense syllables, choose one, and count the number of times it was repeated.
Test Phase: All subjects sat in front of an electronic board and were presented with a box with a red button under their right hand. Instructed that they would hear various sounds, but certain sounds would result in the number on board increasing. Their job was to figure when the number would increase and indicate that by pressing the red button.
Visual latent inhibition
*Those subjects that did not participate in the
auditory task participated in the visual task.
Preexposure phase: Eight geometric designs were presented on a screen to subjects who were asked to choose one design, then count the number of times that it appeared.
(smoking status was assessed retrospectively)
Two experiments conducted:
Test phase: All subjects sat in front of a screen that would again show the geometric designs, but would also show an 'X'. Instructed that something on the screen would signal the 'X' to move from the center to the top of the screen then back again. Their job was to figure out what made the 'X' move and indicate this by pressing the 'shift' key on a keyboard immediately
before the 'X' moved.
key in the 2.5 second interval between presentation and
movement of 'X'.