Face classification in schizophrenia: evidence for a sensitivity to distinctiveness.

The face-processing skills of people with schizophrenia were compared with those of a group of unimpaired individuals. Participants were asked to make speeded face-classification decisions to faces previously rated as being typical or distinctive. The schizophrenic group responded more slowly than the unimpaired group; however, both groups demonstrated the customary sensitivity to the distinctiveness of the face stimuli.