Abstract
BackgroundImplicit learning was reported to be intact in schizophrenia using artificial grammar learning. However, emerging evidence indicates that artificial grammar learning is not a unitary process. The authors used dual coding stimuli and schizophrenia clinical symptom dimensions to re-evaluate the effect of schizophrenia on various components of artificial grammar learning.MethodsLetter string and color pattern artificial grammar learning performances were compared between 63 schizophrenic patients and 27 comparison subjects. Four symptom dimensions derived from a Chinese Positive and Negative Symptom Scale ratings were correlated with patients' artificial grammar implicit learning performances along the two stimulus dimensions. Patients' explicit memory performances were assessed by verbal paired associates and visual reproduction subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scales Revised Version to provide a contrast to their implicit memory function.ResultsSchizophrenia severely hindered color pattern artificial grammar learning while the disease affected lexical string artificial grammar learning to a lesser degree after correcting the influences from age, education and the performance of explicit memory function of both verbal and visual modalities. Both learning performances correlated significantly with the severity of patients' schizophrenic clinical symptom dimensions that reflect poor abstract thinking, disorganized thinking, and stereotyped thinking.ConclusionThe results of this study suggested that schizophrenia affects various mechanisms of artificial grammar learning differently. Implicit learning, knowledge acquisition in the absence of conscious awareness, is not entirely intact in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects implicit learning through an impairment of the ability of making abstractions from rules and at least in part decreasing the capacity for perceptual learning.
Highlights
Implicit learning was reported to be intact in schizophrenia using artificial grammar learning
MANCOVA analysis of the implicit learning between the comparison subjects and schizophrenic patients indicated that both color-pattern and lexical-string artificial grammar learning were impaired in patients with schizophrenia
Significant group differences were found in the color pattern artificial grammar learning performance either correcting only the years of education and age (F (3, 87) = 8.51, p < 0.001) or in addition correcting the performance of explicit memory function in the neuropsychological test of both visual reproduction and verbal paired associates (F(3, 85) = 5.48, p < 0.001)
Summary
Implicit learning was reported to be intact in schizophrenia using artificial grammar learning. Emerging evidence indicates that artificial grammar learning is not a unitary process. The authors used dual coding stimuli and schizophrenia clinical symptom dimensions to re-evaluate the effect of schizophrenia on various components of artificial grammar learning. Implicit learning refers to the acquisition of embedded tacit knowledge without conscious awareness. In this form of learning, a deliberate effort to memorize or problem solve is not required. Grammatical lexical strings are generated by traversing the legal paths connecting the notes and the arches as shown in the diagram. Non-grammatical strings are generated by concatenating the labels that violate the flow of the diagram in one place in the diagram.
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