Abstract
The role of semantic organization in verbal memory efficiency in schizophrenia was investigated. Patients and healthy controls were administered a free-recall task involving 1 nonsemantic ally organizable list, 1 list organizable in semantic categories with typical instances and 1 list organizable in semantic categories with atypical instances. Reduced semantic organization was observed in patients. Regression analyses showed that the semantic clustering score in the atypical organizable list made a significant contribution to recall performance in patients. When semantic clustering was controlled, the effect of diagnosis on free recall was significant. These results suggest that depth of semantic organization is a crucial factor of verbal memory performance in schizophrenia. However, semantic organizational deficit does not account for the whole recall impairment.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages (from-to) | 378 - 383 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Neuropsychology |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2004 |