Traditional test administration and proactive interference undermine visual-spatial working memory performance in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Working-memory (WM) is a core cognitive deficit among individuals with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD). However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms of this deficit are less known. This study applies a modified version of the Corsi Block Test to investigate the role of proactive interference in visuospatial WM (VSWM) impairment in SSD.

Methods

Healthy and SSD participants completed a modified version of the Corsi Block Test involving both high (typical ascending set size from 4 to 7 items) and low (descending set size from 7 to 4 items) proactive interference conditions.

Results

The results confirmed that the SSD group performed worse overall relative to a healthy comparison group. More importantly, the SSD group demonstrated greater VSWM scores under low (Descending) versus high (Ascending) proactive interference; this pattern is opposite to that of healthy participants.

Conclusions

This differential pattern of performance supports that proactive interference associated with the traditional administration format contributes to VSWM impairment in SSD. Further research investigating associated neurocognitive mechanisms and the contribution of proactive interference across other domains of cognition in SSD is warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial memory
• memory
• short-term
• proactive inhibition
• Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders
• executive function
• memory disorders

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Katie Herdman, Michelle Marcos, Iulia Patriciu and Carolyn Roy for their assistance with recruitment, data collection and analyses; we also thank Claudio Filho for assistance with data management and manuscript formatting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Todd A. Girard http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7204-5684

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by grants from the Faculty of Arts (Ryerson University) and from NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) (The Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation, grant number #16343) to TAG.