A possible explanation for this
is that reading speed is related to general processing speed, which,
as noted, is known to be impaired among schizophrenia patients
and it not necessarily associated with a decline in a specific area of
reading. This suggests that the difficulty lies in reduced efficiency of
processing and not a problem in the basic mechanisms of reading,
such as phonological failure. This might also be the explanation for
the decline found in the area of writing. In this research, writing
ability was measured by means of dictation of a paragraph. The speed
of the dictation was adapted to the average speed of healthy adults,
as measured in the MATAL development research. The writing
efficiency of the research participants, people with schizophrenia,
was found to be significantly lower than the norm; this, too, may be
due to a low processing speed, as well as low motor speed.