The study of remitted schizophrenic outpatients is proposed as a way of minimizing the effects of the "nuisance variables" that confound the study of hospitalized schizophrenics. Twenty hospitalized acutely disturbed schizophrenics, 20 schizophrenic outpatients in clinical remission, and 20 normal controls were administered the span of apprehension test and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). On the CPT, both acute and remitted schizophrenics made significantly more errors of omission and commission than did the normal controls. On the span of apprehension, as the number of nonrelevant elements in the array was increased, both groups of schizophrenics showed a significantly greater decrement in accuracy of detection of the target stimuli than did normal controls. The same pattern of results has recently been observed in children at risk for schizophrenia, which suggests that the span of apprehension may be sensitive to core schizophrenic processes that are independent of clinical state. The cross-sectional study of the three stages of schizophrenia-the premorbid, acute, and remitted-is proposed as a way of identifying "core" schizophrenic processes and markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The nonsignificant correlations observed in the present study between performance on the CPT and on the span of apprehension raise further questions about the adequacy of a general "attentional impairment" interpretation of schizophrenic deficit.A number of major reviews of psychological deficit in schizophrenia (Lang & Buss, 1965;Silverman, 1964;Venables, 1964) have noted that schizophrenics seem to be particularly impaired on attention and information processing tasks. These reviews have suggested that attentional impairment may be a central characteristic of schizophrenia. Investigations This research project was supported by Ontario Mental Health Foundation Grant 512-74B to both authors. Appreciation is expressed to the patients, administration, and staff of the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital for their cooperation. The authors are particularly indebted to Pat Foley and Jean Kenney for assistance in locating subjects for testing and to Mamie Griffin for collecting the data. Appreciation is also expressed to Ed Ware for his advice on data analysis.

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