Method for evaluating subjective states of awareness that accompany recognition: adaptation for use in Portuguese-speaking patients with schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
Memory is composed of several systems and processes, and recognition can be accompanied by two subjective states of consciousness: autonoetic awareness, which characterizes conscious recollection; and noetic (or semantic) awareness, related to feelings of familiarity. The objective of this study was to describe the adaptation to Portuguese of an experiential procedure for investigation of states of awareness that accompany recognition.


METHODS
Development of the material (word list and instructions permitting manipulation of the level of information processing); translation/adaptation of the original instructions to Portuguese; and application of the procedure in healthy volunteers and patients with schizophrenia. Manipulation of the level of processing consisted in requiring, during the learning phase, that subjects form a phrase or count the number of letters of the words presented. The level of processing, documented in healthy volunteers, should be expressed by greater conscious recollection of words used to form phrases than of words for which letters were counted. In addition, there should be no change in the proportion of recognition based on feelings of familiarity.


RESULTS
The procedure was first applied in six healthy volunteers, in whom the processing level effect was clearly reproducible. Subsequently, it was used in patients with schizophrenia, who understood and followed the instructions perfectly. There was also a clear processing level effect in the patient group.


CONCLUSIONS
The Portuguese version of this method can be used in our milieu, even in patients with schizophrenia, allowing the study of memory alterations accompanying this mental disorder.
Ribeiro
Marcos Aurélio Martins
MA
Mental Health Graduate Program, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Zuardi
Antonio Waldo
AW
Hetem
Luiz Alberto B
LA
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014175:Translating