Semantic Organization and Verbal Memory Efficiency in Patients With Schizophrenia. |
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Authors: | Brébion, Gildas David, Anthony S. Jones, Hugh Pilowsky, Lyn S. |
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Abstract: | The role of semantic organization in verbal memory efficiency in schizophrenia was investigated. Patients and healthy controls were administered a free-recall task involving 1 nonsemantically organizable list, 1 list organizable in semantic categories with typical instances, and 1 list organizable in semantic categories with atypical instances. Reduced semantic organization was observed in patients. Regression analyses showed that the semantic clustering score in the atypical organizable list made a significant contribution to recall performance in patients. When semantic clustering was controlled, the effect of diagnosis on free recall was significant. These results suggest that depth of semantic organization is a crucial factor of verbal memory performance in schizophrenia. However, semantic organizational deficit does not account for the whole recall impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
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Keywords: | semantic organization verbal memory efficiency schizophrenia free recall task |
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