Functional disorganization of representations in schizophrenia.
The first part of this article describes a model of disorganization of representations in schizophrenia. We assume that subjects with schizophrenia have some interfering activity in memory. Such an interfering activity induces a functional decontextualization of information and the reciprocal is true. This model accounts for different classes of cognitive troubles that have been observed in schizophrenia. In the second part, we describe a text-comprehension experiment that studies two paradigmatic cases of episodic and semantic contextualization of information: the "compartmentalization" and the "thematization" of fictional narratives. Compartmentalization refers to the way in which representations of different narratives are separated in memory; thematization refers to the way in which representations of one narrative are structured in function of a theme. In our experiment, compartmentalization and thematization are assessed by a method of priming in word recognition. In agreement with our model, the results show that subjects with schizophrenia are impaired in compartmentalization and thematization when compared with anxious-depressed subjects.
Plagnol
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A
Department of Psychology, University Charles de Gaulle-Lille III, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Pachoud
B
B
Claudel
B
B
Granger
B
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D001288:Attention / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014936:Word Association Tests