Short-term memory impairment in chronic schizophrenics.

Assessed the short-term memory capacities of 4 chronic, schizophrenic and 4 nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients who served as controls. The information to be remembered was presented both visually and verbally and was later probed for after a variable interval by either visual or verbal cues. Schizophrenics and controls did not differ with respect to which type of cue retrieved more of the information, suggesting that the modality in which the information was stored was the same for both groups. However, schizophrenics were markedly inferior to controls regarding both the initial acquisition of information and the maintenance of it in storage. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)