Abnormalities in attention have long been viewed as one of the
fundamental underlying cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, likely
contributing both to formation of some types of symptoms and particularly
to the substantial work and social impairments that often accompany
schizophrenia. Yet, the precise nature of the attentional deficits in
schizophrenia remains poorly understood. Translating advances in cognitive
psychology to clinical research brings paradigms with greater analytic
power to the study of attention in schizophrenia. In particular, these
paradigms should shed light on whether the attentional dysfunction in
schizophrenia is best conceptualized as arising from limitations in amount
or allocation of processing capacity or from more specific structural
bottlenecks that do not allow certain processes to be carried out in two
tasks simultaneously. Certain types of dual-task paradigms are
particularly well suited to make distinctive predictions, particularly
those involving a psychological refractory period paradigm. The background
and design of a series of ongoing studies of prodromal, first-episode, and
chronic schizophrenia patients are described that are addressing the
developmental course of attentional dysfunction in this disorder. These
refined paradigms should substantially increase our understanding of the
specific forms of attentional impairment characterizing schizophrenia and
their connections to symptom development and functional outcome.