Limits of the processing view in accounting for dissociations among memory measures in a clinical population

Abstract

In three experiments, we examined the performance of patients with schizophrenia on implicit and explicit memory tests that have been shown to involve predominantly data-driven or predominantly conceptually driven processes. In Experiment 1, we compared the implicit tests of category production (conceptually driven) and word identification (data driven) and found that schizophrenic patients' performance on these tests did not differ from that of normal subjects. In Experiment 2, a comparison of the category-production and explicit cued-recall tests, both of which involve conceptual processes, showed that schizophrenic patients were impaired on the cued-recall test but not on the category-production test. In Experiment 3, a comparison of the word-identification and explicit graphemic cued-recall tests, both of which involve data-driven processes, showed that patients were impaired on the cued-recall test but not on the word-identification test. The results of both Experiments 2 and 3 revealed a dissociation between implicit and explicit test performance under conditions in which the two tests involve similar types of processes. These results support theoretical views that distinguish implicit from explicit modes of retrieval.