Reality monitoring in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Abstract

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often doubt whether they have performed an action or merely imagined having performed it. Such doubts suggest that OCD patients may have deficits in reality monitoring—the ability to distinguish memories of doing from memories of imagined doing. We compared the reality monitoring abilities of OCD checkers, OCD noncheckers and normal control Ss. Although we found no evidence of reality monitoring deficits in OCD patients, they tended to express less confidence in their memories relative to control Ss. These findings suggest that obsessional doubt may reflect deficits in memory confidence rather than deficits in memory per se.