The role of retrieval inhibition in the associative memory impairment of schizophrenia

Abstract

To examine retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in schizophrenia, subjects studied category-exemplar words taken from either strong or weak categories, and then practiced retrieval by completing category word-stems on half of the word pairs. Patients had reduced recall and recognition, but showed the expected RIF effect of better recall of unpracticed items from unpracticed categories than for unpracticed items from practiced categories. By contrast, patients and controls showed differing RIF for recognition as a function of categorical dominance: whereas controls showed RIF only for dominant category exemplar word pairs, patients showed RIF for both dominant and weak categories. Different patterns of baseline practiced retrieval for weak associate pairs in schizophrenia may explain this finding. The results failed to support faulty RIF in the associative memory impairment of schizophrenia.

The role of exemplar typicality and encoding strategies in category retrieval-induced forgetting

“…In the present study, as in the original study by and later studies (AhnAllen et al, 2007;Bä uml, 1998), item strength was the decisive factor in RIF. Competition during retrieval practice rendered inhibition in the typical or highly accessible exemplars, but RIF did not appear when the exemplars were low typicality.…”

Forgetting in context: The effects of age, emotion, and social factors on retrieval-induced forgetting

“…That is, despite their documented declines in inhibitory control, older adults exhibit equivalent RIF to younger adults (Aslan, et al, 2007; Collette, et al, 2009; Gomez-Ariza, Pelegrina, Lechuga, Suarez, & Bajo, 2009; Hogge, Adam, & Collette, 2008; Koustaal, Schachter, Johnson, & Galluccio, 1999). This is in line with additional research showing intact RIF in other populations with inhibitory control deficits, such as children (Ford, Keating, & Patel, 2004; Lechuga, Moreno, Pelegrina, Gómez-Ariza, & Bajo, 2006; but see Aslan & Bäuml, 2010), people with frontal lobe damage (Conway & Fthenaki, 2003) and people with schizophrenia (AhnAllen, Nestor, McCarley, & Shenton, 2007; Racsmány, Conway, Garab, Cimmer, Janka, Kurimay, et al, 2008; but see Soriano, Jiménez, Román, & Bajo, 2009).…”

Unintentional memory inhibition is weakened in non-clinical dissociators

“…However, it is unlikely that the state of negative affect and psychosis play the main role in the results. Previous studies have shown that anxiety and dysphoric mood did not reduce the RIF effect on neutral materials (Amir, Coles, Brigidi, & Foa, 2001;Moulds & Kandris, 2006) and the RIF effect was intact in patients with schizophrenia (AhnAllen, Nestor, McCarley, & Shenton, 2007;Soriano, Jimé nez, Romá n, & Bajo, 2009). Given the constraint of lack of data on intelligence and psychopathology measures, results from this study nevertheless showed weakened unintentional memory inhibition in non-clinical dissociators.…”