Memory and metamemory in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Previous research on memory deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical checkers yielded inconsistent results.
• Patients with OCD consistently demonstrate a lack of confidence in their memory performance, a key aspect of metamemory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate memory and metamemory performance in patients with OCD, subclinical checkers, and normal controls.
• To examine performance for both neutral and threat-related material.
• To assess feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments as a measure of metamemory accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Participants studied word pairs (neutral and threat-related).
• Cued-recall and recognition tests were administered.
• Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments were collected for unrecalled items.

Main Results:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients showed significant impairments in both recall and recognition compared to normal controls.
• OCD patients reported lower confidence in their memory performance, indicated by reduced FOK ratings.
• Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments from OCD patients were unreliable predictors of their actual recognition performance.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the presence of a general memory deficit in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• A significant metamemory deficit, characterized by unreliable self-assessment of memory, is evident in OCD patients.
• Subclinical checkers did not exhibit memory or metamemory impairments compared to normal controls.