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Processing Speed and Working Memory Span: Their Differential Role in Superficial and Deep Memory Processes in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2011

Gildas Brébion ,
Rodrigo A. Bressan ,
Lyn S. Pilowsky  and
Anthony S. David
Gildas Brébion*
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom Unit of Research and Development, Sant Joan de Déu – Serveis de Salut Mental y CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain
Rodrigo A. Bressan
Affiliation:
Center for Neuroimaging and Cognition, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Lyn S. Pilowsky
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom
Anthony S. David
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Gildas Brébion, Unit of Research and Development, Sant Joan de Déu – Serveis de Salut Mental, C\Doctor Antoni Pujadas 42, 08830 Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona) Spain. E-mail: gildas.brebion@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Previous work has suggested that decrement in both processing speed and working memory span plays a role in the memory impairment observed in patients with schizophrenia. We undertook a study to examine simultaneously the effect of these two factors. A sample of 49 patients with schizophrenia and 43 healthy controls underwent a battery of verbal and visual memory tasks. Superficial and deep encoding memory measures were tallied. We conducted regression analyses on the various memory measures, using processing speed and working memory span as independent variables. In the patient group, processing speed was a significant predictor of superficial and deep memory measures in verbal and visual memory. Working memory span was an additional significant predictor of the deep memory measures only. Regression analyses involving all participants revealed that the effect of diagnosis on all the deep encoding memory measures was reduced to non-significance when processing speed was entered in the regression. Decreased processing speed is involved in verbal and visual memory deficit in patients, whether the task require superficial or deep encoding. Working memory is involved only insofar as the task requires a certain amount of effort. (JINS, 2011, 17, 485–493)

Keywords

Semantic memoryLearningLanguagePicturesCognitive symptomsLevel of processing
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 485 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

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