Recent years witnessed a considerable proliferation of computer-based
training programmes as instruments of cognitive rehabilitation for sch
izophrenic patients. A study on the effects of a 3-week computer-based
attention training with schizophrenic patients is presented. The Span
of Apprehension and the Continuous Performance Test (CTP) were carrie
d out before und after the training period. Performance improvements w
ere found only on few attention training tasks. Schizophrenics had hig
her post-treatment hit rates on the Span of Apprehension, but no post-
treatment improvements were observed in the CPT. Performance of traine
d patients in the external attention measures was not superior to perf
ormance of matched schizophrenic control patients. These data suggest
that brief intensive computer-based attention remediation does not lea
d to enhanced attentional capacity in schizophrenia. Thus, it might be
more adequate to teach behavioural strategies that bypass attention d
eficits or to offer programmes for exercising more complex cognitive s
kills than to try to remedy basic cognitive impairments.