Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T00:23:03.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Missing the forest for the trees? Deficient memory for linguistic gist in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2001

A. R. CABRERA
Affiliation:
From the Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA, USA
R. J. McNALLY
Affiliation:
From the Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA, USA
C. R. SAVAGE
Affiliation:
From the Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA, USA

Abstract

Background. Patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit recall deficits on word learning tasks, mediated by their failure to detect semantic connections among the words.

Methods. In the present experiment, using methods devised by Bransford & Franks (1971), we tested whether this encoding problem impairs their extraction of gist from complex linguistic material.

Results. Consistent with our hypothesis, OCD patients extracted less gist from related sentences than did healthy participants. The groups did not differ in recognition memory for individual sentences or in criterion for affirming previously encountered sentences as ‘old’, as evinced by signal detection indices of memory sensitivity (d′) and response bias (β), or in recognition memory confidence.

Conclusions. These data provide further evidence that OCD patients exhibit less reliance on organizational strategies than do healthy control participants. These data are consistent with neuropsychological research suggestive of prefrontal executive problems in OCD.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)