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Source monitoring and memory confidence in schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2002

S. MORITZ ,
T. S. WOODWARD  and
C. C. RUFF
S. MORITZ
Affiliation:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Hamburg, Germany; and Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Department of Medicine and Research, Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
T. S. WOODWARD
Affiliation:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Hamburg, Germany; and Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Department of Medicine and Research, Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
C. C. RUFF
Affiliation:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Hamburg, Germany; and Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Department of Medicine and Research, Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
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Abstract

Background. The present study attempted to extend previous research on source monitoring deficits in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that patients would show a bias to attribute self-generated words to an external source. Furthermore, it was expected that schizophrenic patients would be over-confident regarding false memory attributions.

Method. Thirty schizophrenic and 21 healthy participants were instructed to provide a semantic association for 20 words. Subsequently, a list was read containing experimenter- and self-generated words as well as new words. The subject was required to identify each item as old/new, name the source, and state the degree of confidence for the source attribution.

Results. Schizophrenic patients displayed a significantly increased number of source attribution errors and were significantly more confident than controls that a false source attribution response was true. The latter bias was ameliorated by higher doses of neuroleptics.

Conclusions. It is inferred that a core cognitive deficit underlying schizophrenia is a failure to distinguish false from true mnestic contents.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 131 - 139
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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