Cognitive models of schizophrenia have highlighted deficits of inhibitory a
ttentional processes as central to the disorder. This has been investigated
using "negative priming" (S. P. Tipper, 1985), with schizophrenia patients
showing a reduction of negative priming in a number of studies. This study
attempted to replicate these findings, but studied psychotic symptoms rath
er than the broad diagnostic category of schizophrenia. Psychotic individua
ls exhibiting positive symptoms were compared with asymptomatic psychiatric
patients and with a normal control group. As predicted, the symptomatic gr
oup failed to show the usual negative priming effect which was present in t
he asymptomatic and normal groups. A modest bur significant correlation was
found between negative priming and delusions. Neither diagnosis. nor affec
tive or negative symptoms, nor chronicity, nor medication, was related to n
egative priming. These data replicate previous findings that positive sympt
oms are related to a reduction in cognitive inhibition, although considerab
le variability was observed among the psychotic patients.