“Perhaps you only imagined doing it”: Reality-monitoring in obsessive-compulsive checkers using semi-idiographic stimuli

Abstract

Memory failures reported by obsessive–compulsive (OC) checkers often seem to be errors of “reality-monitoring”, or misremembering whether one performed or imagined performing an action. To examine these memory processes in the context in which such errors are said to occur, an in-home reality-monitoring experiment involving bothersome and non-bothersome actions was conducted with 21 OC checkers and 24 non-clinical controls. OC checkers reported poorer confidence in memory, but both groups performed similarly on tests of immediate and delayed free and prompted recall. Among OC checkers (but not controls), accuracy in recall and confidence in memory were correlated. Theoretical implications are discussed.