Abstract
Background
Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty organizing words semantically to facilitate
encoding. This is commonly attributed to organizational rather than semantic processing
limitations. By requiring participants to classify and encode words on either a shallow
(e.g., uppercase/lowercase) or deep level (e.g., concrete/abstract), the levels-of-processing
paradigm eliminates the need to generate organizational strategies.
Methods
This paradigm was administered to 30 patients with schizophrenia and 30 healthy comparison
subjects to test whether providing a strategy would improve patient performance.
Results
Word classification during shallow and deep encoding was slower and less accurate
in patients. Patients also responded slowly during recognition testing and maintained
a more conservative response bias following deep encoding; however, both groups showed
a robust levels-of-processing effect on recognition accuracy, with unimpaired patient
performance following both shallow and deep encoding.
Conclusions
This normal levels-of-processing effect in the patient sample suggests that semantic
processing is sufficiently intact for patients to benefit from organizational cues.
Memory remediation efforts may therefore be most successful if they focus on teaching
patients to form organizational strategies during initial encoding.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 5,
2003
Received in revised form:
February 4,
2003
Received:
October 7,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
