Visual search performance among persons with schizophrenia as a function of target eccentricity.
Abstract
The current study investigated one possible mechanism of impaired visual attention among patients with schizophrenia: a reduced visual span. Visual span is the region of the visual field from which one can extract information during a single eye fixation. This study hypothesized that schizophrenia-related visual search impairment is mediated, in part, by a smaller visual span. To test this hypothesis, 23 patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls completed a visual search task where the target was pseudorandomly presented at different distances from the center of the display. Response times were analyzed as a function of search condition (feature vs. conjunctive), display size, and target eccentricity. Consistent with previous reports, patient search times were more adversely affected as the number of search items increased in the conjunctive search condition. It was important however, that patients' conjunctive search times were also impacted to a greater degree by target eccentricity. Moreover, a significant impairment in patients' visual search performance was only evident when targets were more eccentric and their performance was more similar to healthy controls when the target was located closer to the center of the search display. These results support the hypothesis that a narrower visual span may underlie impaired visual search performance among patients with schizophrenia.
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A large number of studies have validated the visual search paradigm to explore visual attention mechanisms in healthy and clinical populations.
“A large number of studies have validated the visual search paradigm to explore visual attention mechanisms in healthy and clinical populations [e.g., (76–79)].”
From The Evolution of Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Self-Isolation During Lockdown: A Longitudinal Study Across United Kingdom and Italy (2022) · cites this paper as [78]
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Visual Surround Suppression in Schizophrenia
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“In addition, patients with SZ are less sensitive at detecting peripheral stimuli during a concurrent foveal discrimination task (Cegalis and Deptula, 1981) or a visual search task (Elahipanah et al., 2010).”
BackgroundA Test of the Cognitive Self-Medication Hypothesis of Tobacco Smoking in Schizophrenia
Hahn, B., Harvey, A. N., Concheiro, M., Huestis, M. A., Holcomb, H. H., & Gold, J. M. (2013) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.03.017 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
“However, SCZ overall had higher scores than HCS [main effect of Group: F(1,31)=14.”
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“In a previous study (Elahipanah et al., 2010), it was found that patients’ visual search impairment was accentuated as a function of target eccentricity.”
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Leonard, C. J., Robinson, B. M., Hahn, B., Luck, S. J., & Gold, J. M. (2017) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/abn0000314 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
“Moreover, the sharper falloff in distraction over distance exhibited by PSZ is consistent with a tendency for hyperfocusing of spatial attention in this population (Elahipanah et al., 2010, 2011; Gray et al., 2014; Hahn et al., 2012).”
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What can eye movements tell us about Symbol Digit substitution by patients with schizophrenia?
Elahipanah, A., Christensen, B. K., & Reingold, E. M. (2010) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.11.018 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“⁎ pb .05. with previous findings of impaired visual search among these patients (e.g., Carr et al., 1998; Elahipanah et al., 2010; Fuller et al., 2006; Lieb et al., 1994; Mori et al., 1996).”
ResultHahn, B., Robinson, B. M., Kiat, J. E., Geng, J. J., Bansal, S., Luck, S. J., & Gold, J. M. (2021) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhab327 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Visuospatial task-related prefrontal activity is correlated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia
Curtin, A., Sun, J., Zhao, Q., Onaral, B., Wang, J., Tong, S., & Ayaz, H. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-45893-7 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Crowding Deficits in the Visual Periphery of Schizophrenia Patients
Krähenmann, R., Vollenweider, F. X., Seifritz, E., & Kometer, M. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045884 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Our finding of larger critical spacing in schizophrenia patients indicates a smaller functional visual field, and this is supported by a number of studies that reported a smaller functional visual field in schizophrenic patients [9,10,100,101].”
BackgroundResultVisual search in neurodevelopmental disorders: evidence towards a continuum of impairment
Canu, D., Ioannou, C., Müller, K., Martin, B., Fleischhaker, C., Biscaldi, M., Beauducel, A., Smyrnis, N., van Elst, L. T., & Klein, C. (2021) · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s00787-021-01756-z · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“By contrast, less efficient serial search characterises patients with schizophrenia [10, 11] or ADHD [9], especially with larger search displays.”
BackgroundResultFace-related visual search deficits in first-episode schizophrenia
She, S., Zhang, B., Li, X., Zhang, X., Li, R., Li, J., Bi, T., & Zheng, Y. (2017) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.06.021 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
VanMeerten, N. J., Dubke, R. E., Stanwyck, J. J., Kang, S. S., & Sponheim, S. R. (2015) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2015.11.007 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“There is some evidence that the difficulty with efficiently searching objects stems for people with schizophrenia having a small visual span (i.e., a narrow spotlight of attention) which is manifest in terms of greater difficulty with wide visual angle displays (Elahipanah et al., 2010).”
BackgroundAttentional guidance during visual search among patients with schizophrenia
Elahipanah, A., Christensen, B. K., & Reingold, E. M. (2011) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2011.05.026 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“Therefore, these data are consistent with previous findings of an exaggerated impact of display size on SCZ patients' visual search performance (e.g., Mori et al., 1996; Fuller et al., 2006; Gold et al., 2007; Elahipanah et al., 2008, 2010).”
ResultChen, Y., Norton, D. J., & Stromeyer, C. F. (2014) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2014.04.018 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“Two of the studies (Elahipanah et al. 2010; Granholm et al. 1996) showed that patients had degraded performance for detecting peripheral visual targets, but another study (Miller et al. 1990) showed relatively intact visual detection in periphery.”
ResultSources of variation in search and foraging: A theoretical perspective
Smith, A. D., & Lillo, C. D. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/17470218211050314 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“Like neglect, this may also be exacerbated by a reduced Useful Field of View because Elahipanah et al. (2010) found search efficiency to be inversely proportional to the eccentricity of the target.”
Riedel, P., Domachowska, I., Lee, Y., Neukam, P. T., Tönges, L., Li, S., Goschke, T., & Smolka, M. N. (2022) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-022-06077-w · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“The present study may be a first step toward gaining an understanding of specific visual search deficits in schizophrenia (Fuller et al. 2006; Gold et al. 2007; Elahipanah et al. 2010).”
BackgroundIncreased influence of a previously attended feature in people with schizophrenia.
Leonard, C. J., Robinson, B. M., Hahn, B., Gold, J. M., & Luck, S. J. (2020) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/abn0000511 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Zaninotto, F., Bossi, F., Terry, P., Riccaboni, M., & Galli, G. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.826277 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Schizotypy is associated with difficulty maintaining multiple hypotheses
Griffiths, O., & Balzan, R. P. (2020) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/1747021820982256 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“…at higher eccentricities (because more eccentric targets have a higher probability of falling outside of the centrally located visual span; Elahipanah et al., 2010), and that eye scanning length is reduced in patients relative to controls (and saccade length is positively related to span;…”
BackgroundTani, A. (2025) · International Journal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy · doi:10.1007/s41811-025-00270-3
“Performance in visual search (VS) tasks requiring greater recruitment of TA (e.g., targets presented in a more eccentric location from the center of the visual search display) is lower in individuals with schizophrenia than that in healthy individuals (Elahipanah et al., 2010).”
- Authors
- Elahipanah, A., Christensen, B. K., & Reingold, E. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- Venue
- Neuropsychology
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 192-198
- ISSN
- 0894-4105 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1559
- OpenAlex
- W1989018813
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Keywords
- schizophrenia, visual search, target eccentricity, visual span, visual attention, feature search, screen size
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Photic Stimulation, Psychotic Disorders, Reaction Time, Schizophrenia, Visual Perception
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