Emotional memory for facial expressions in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: The role of encoding method

Memory is better for emotional rather than neutral events or materials (emotional enhancement of memory; EEM). Evidence suggests that this memory benefit remains intact in schizophrenia, but conflicting findings present the need for further research to understand how and when this process occurs. Here, we examine whether different encoding methods for learning emotional faces may result in different EEM patterns in those with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). A patient group (n = 28) and healthy comparisons (n = 29) encoded faces in two conditions that manipulated attentional focus to promote direct (emotion judgements) or indirect (sex discrimination) processing of emotional content. Based on literature in schizophrenia showing selective emotion perception deficits on tasks of direct processing but relatively intact emotion perception on indirect processing tasks, we hypothesized that patients would show greater EEM effects when faces were encoded indirectly. This hypothesis was not supported, and the patient group instead showed a similar intact EEM for angry and fearful faces to healthy comparisons in both encoding conditions. Further, using the Remember/Know paradigm, we demonstrated that the EEM in SSD appears selective to recollection-based memory, which helps to explain inconsistencies in past literature that has not differentiated between recognition domains. These findings have important implications for improving emotional memory and functional outcomes in SSD; future research should establish how the EEM for facial expressions may relate to social functioning.