高强迫症状个体的定向遗忘和元记忆

Directed Forgetting and Metamemory in High Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Individuals

将定向遗忘和FOK判断的范式相结合,探讨高强迫症状被试(HOC)和低强迫症状的控制组(LOC)在不同词语类型的条件下,线索回忆和元记忆判断的定向遗忘效应的差异。实验结果表明,HOC组在中性词语条件下比LOC组表现出更低的定向遗忘效应。FOK的结果表明HOC被试对于不同条件的元记忆的分辨能力比LOC组要差,他们在威胁性词语方面,对未来记忆任务的成绩也没有预测性。研究结果从一定程度上支持强迫症的一般记忆损伤模型。

Introduction There are disagreements in the interpretation of memory deficits in obsessive - compulsive symptom individuals. Some researchers proposed general memory deficits in the obsessive -compulsive disorder （OCD） population, while others believed that these deficits were a result of the bias toward OC - provoking information. Apart from this, there also was a hypothesis concerning the lack of confidence or metamemory deficits in OCD. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the pathology of OCD, using the information processing approach. Directed forgetting and metamemory performance （feeling - of- knowing （FOK） judgments） for neutral and OC - provoking material was tested in high and low obsessive - compulsive symptom subjects. Method Sixteen high obsessive - compulsive symptom individuals （HOCs） and sixteen low obsessive - compulsive symptom individuals （LOCs） were required to study a list of neutral and OC- provoking word pairs according to the ＂F＂ or ＂R＂ instructions. After an initial cued - recall test, they provided their FOK judgments for the unrecalled word pairs, followed by a recognition test. Results The results indicated that for neutral words, HOCs exhibited reduced directed forgetting compared to LOCs; this suggests that they were unable to forget unnecessary information. Further, the HOCs were confused in metamemory on account of the different sources and types of words, as reflected in their FOK ratings. Moreover, FOK judgments of the HOCs for OC - provoking words were unreliable predictors of their recognition performance. Conclusions The study supported the idea of a general memory deficit in HOCs; further, it indicated that this may be due to the weak differentiation in HOCs. Further, HOCs exhibited worse metamemory for OC - provoking words and had no forecast for their future performance. In conclusion, HOCs exhibited both real memory and metamemory deficits.