626 MOCHIZUKI-KAWAI ET AL. Figure 1. Materials and procedures used in the SFA programme. (a): An example of a ﬂoral arrangement pattern. (b): Materials used in the SFA. (c): A polygonal shaped absorbent sponge with impressions of various shapes: overall view (left) and overhead view (right). (d): Floral arrangement pattern (left) and diagram of the absorbent sponge (right). This was provided in the instruction sheet as the second stage of the ﬂoral arrangement task. The circles and triangles correspond to the impressions on the sponge (c: right). The shapes are a guide to which materials should be placed; the materials were placed vertically to the plane of the shaped sponge (e.g., four lateral roses were placed on the 45-degree angled plane of the sponge marked by a circle). The numbers denote the sequence in which the items were to be placed (right). On the basis of the diagrams in the instruction sheet, the participants were able to identify the placement position for each item, which they memorised temporarily, and subsequently followed step-by-step. Finally, after placing three types of materials (roses, carnations, and variegated leaves) on predetermined positions, small leaves and/or ﬂowers were arranged randomly to ﬁll up the remaining area on the absorbent sponge. [To view this ﬁgure in colour, please visit the online version of this Journal.] programme, participants have to memorise three-dimensional information, and use it to create ﬂoral arrangements. Block-design training has been reported as one of the effective interven- tions for remediation of visuospatial ability (Diller et al., 1974; Young, Collins, & Heren, 1983), where brain damaged patients are required to arrange painted blocks according to a model. Treated patients showed improvement in reading and writing words as a result of enhancement of their visual information scanning ability (Young et al., 1983). The SFA pro- gramme procedure appears similar to that of block-design training where materials are arranged based on instructions, making it possible that the present SFA programme will improve visuospatial ability. However, there are few studies on the effect of block-design training in patients with schizo- phrenia. It is also unclear whether visuospatial working memory may be