title: Threat-related processing supports prospective memory retrieval for people with obsessive tendencies.
abstract: Obsessive-compulsive disorder can result in a variety of deficits to cognitive performance, including negative consequences for attention and memory performance. The question addressed in the current study concerned whether this disorder influenced performance in an event-based prospective memory task. The results from a subclinical population indicated that, relative to non-anxious controls and mildly depressed controls, people with obsessive-compulsive tendencies (washing compulsions) incur decrements in remembering to respond to cues related to a neutral intention (respond to animals). This deficit was ameliorated by giving the subclinical group an intention about a threat-related category (respond to bodily fluids) and cueing them with concepts that they had previously rated as particularly disturbing to them. Thus, their normal attentional bias for extended processing of threat-related information overcame their natural deficit in event-based prospective memory.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-3013, USA. rlmarsh@uga.edu
authors: Richard L
authors: RL
authors: Marsh
authors: Gene A
authors: GA
authors: Brewer
authors: John Paul
authors: JP
authors: Jameson
authors: Gabriel I
authors: GI
authors: Cook
authors: Nader
authors: N
authors: Amir
authors: Jason L
authors: JL
authors: Hicks
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*