title: Semantic organization and verbal memory efficiency in patients with schizophrenia.
abstract: The role of semantic organization in verbal memory efficiency in schizophrenia was investigated. Patients and healthy controls were administered a free-recall task involving 1 nonsemantically organizable list, 1 list organizable in semantic categories with typical instances, and 1 list organizable in semantic categories with atypical instances. Reduced semantic organization was observed in patients. Regression analyses showed that the semantic clustering score in the atypical organizable list made a significant contribution to recall performance in patients. When semantic clustering was controlled, the effect of diagnosis on free recall was significant. These results suggest that depth of semantic organization is a crucial factor of verbal memory performance in schizophrenia. However, semantic organizational deficit does not account for the whole recall impairment.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychological Medicine.
authors.forename: Gildas
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7095-4788
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brébion
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychological Medicine.
authors.forename: Anthony S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychological Medicine.
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychological Medicine.
authors.forename: Lyn S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Pilowsky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012564:Schizophrenic Language; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D012691:Serial Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning