Episodic Memory and Impairment of an Early Encoding Process in Schizophrenia

Investigations of memory impairment in schizophrenia have frequently revealed a strategic processing deficit at encoding. The authors studied an early encoding process, refreshing (in this case, thinking of a stimulus that has just-previously been presented), and its impact on recognition memory in schizophrenia. Following simultaneous presentation of three words or a single word in the top, middle, or bottom position of the screen, 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 control participants saw and read a new word (read condition), or a word presented on the previous screen (repeat condition), or saw a dot indicating that they should think of and say the last word to have appeared in that position (refresh condition). Later, on a surprise test, participants were asked to recognize words seen previously and give a Remember, Know, or Guess response according to whether they recognized each on the basis of conscious recollection, familiarity, or guessing. The cognitive operation of refreshing was impaired in schizophrenia: patients were slower on 1-word trials and less accurate on 3-word trials to refresh a word, and their Remember responses did not benefit from refreshing.