title: Spatial and object working memory impairments in schizophrenia patients: a Bayesian item-response theory analysis.
abstract: This study reports evidence that schizophrenia patients are significantly impaired in both spatial and object (shape) working memory. A 3-s delay between exposure and recall of targets was used and Bayesian item-response theory was applied to compensate for the tasks' differential difficulty while simultaneously taking account of missing data from participant attrition. Weaker evidence was found that in schizophrenia both domains are equally impaired on average, that spatial and object working memory appear to be more highly correlated with each other in the schizophrenia population than in the normal population, and that schizophrenia patients show greater variability in spatial than object working memory performance.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Research Laboratory, Mailman Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matthysse
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barnard
authors.forename: Yungtai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Deborah L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Donald B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: Philip S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Holzman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012923:Social Class; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology