Verbatim versus gist processes 1 edition

About the Book

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether persons with schizophrenia (SCZ) can appropriately utilize verbatim versus gist memory under recall conditions that emphasize one or the other. Ninety minutes after reading a brief prose passage, half of the participants were instructed to recall the story using the title that they were provided at encoding (i.e., same-title condition). The remaining participants were asked to recall the passage using an alternate title (i.e., switch-title condition). Control participants in the switch-title condition produced lower rates of gist intrusions and higher verbatim memory units than the same-title condition. However, SCZ participants demonstrated no change in gist intrusions and lower verbatim units in the switch-title condition. These findings are consistent with previous investigations of SCZ-related verbatim memory deficits, but also suggest impairment in the ability to appropriately deploy memory processes.