Word and tone working memory deficits in schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Verbal memory deficits have been reported in many studies of patients with schizophrenia. We evaluated the specificity of these deficits by comparing patients and control subjects on several verbal and nonverbal auditory memory tests.


METHODS
Performance of stable, medicated outpatients with DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia (N = 38) was compared with that of healthy subjects (N = 39) on a word list immediate recall task, tone delayed discrimination tasks, and word and tone serial position tasks. Before memory testing, patients were divided into 2 groups based on their ability to perform normally on a screening test requiring pitch discrimination and sustained attention.


RESULTS
The nonverbal tests were more difficult for control subjects than the verbal tests. Despite this, patients who performed normally on the screening test of perception and attention performed normally on both nonverbal tests but had highly significant deficits on both verbal tests (P<.001 and P = .02). Patients who performed poorly on the screening test had highly significant performance deficits on all the memory tests.


CONCLUSIONS
One subgroup of patients with schizophrenia has a selective deficit in verbal memory despite normal motivation, attention, and general perceptual function. Another group has deficits in multiple aspects of cognitive function suggestive of failure in early stages of information processing.
Wexler
B E
BE
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, USA. bruce.wexler@yale.edu
Stevens
A A
AA
Bowers
A A
AA
Sernyak
M J
MJ
Goldman-Rakic
P S
PS
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D011932:Reading; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior