Effects of phonological and semantic cuing on encoding and retrieval processes in adolescent psychosis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of cuing on encoding and retrieval processes in adolescent psychosis. Patients and controls were instructed to learn word lists under three conditions: no cue, phonological cue, and semantic cue. Memory performance was measured with free and cued recalls. In free recall, both groups showed higher performance with semantic than with phonological encoding cues, but patients had no advantage from semantic cuing relative to no cue, contrary to controls. Patients' performance improved from free to cued recall, but this was not sufficient to normalize their performance. Impaired strategic processes may lead to encoding and retrieval difficulties in patients.

Keywords:

• Episodic memory
• Cuing
• Encoding
• Retrieval
• Adolescence
• Psychosis

This article includes portions of a dissertation submitted by M.-C. Doré in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the PhD degree. Some results were presented at the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (Colorado Springs, USA, March 2007). This study was supported by doctoral scholarships from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) and the Fonds Facultaire d'Enseignement et de Recherche (Université Laval) awarded to Marie-Claire Doré, by grants from the FRSQ and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to Nicole Caza, and by the Fonds de Démarrage de la Faculté des Sciences Sociales (Université Laval) and grants from the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture (FQRSC) to Nancie Rouleau. We thank Julie Boutin and Marie-Josée Marois for their assistance with the testing of participants.