A backward masking study of auditory sensory memory dysfunction in schizophrenia.
Item
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Title
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A backward masking study of auditory sensory memory dysfunction in schizophrenia.
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Identifier
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AAI9830734
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identifier
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9830734
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Creator
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March, Lucy Ware.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Laurence J. Gould
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Experimental | Psychology, Cognitive
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Abstract
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Numerous studies have shown that impairment of working memory is one of the major trait-linked markers of schizophrenia. Most research conducted thus far has focused on attention-dependent working memory. In two recent studies, however, schizophrenic subjects have demonstrated severe deficits in the ability to match two tones separated by a brief delay. This indicates impaired processing within the largely attention-independent auditory sensory memory system. The present study tests the hypothesis that this deficit reflects imprecise processing of auditory stimuli as opposed to either an auditory discrimination deficit or a greater fragility of memory trace. It does so by combining, over a range of discrimination levels, minimal delay tone matching and delay tone matching with and without backward masking. Subjects were 14 chronic schizophrenics compared with 16 controls of similar age. Schizophrenic subjects were severely impaired in their ability to match tones across both the minimal delay and delay (500 ms) conditions. However, when no-mask performance was equated across subjects by varying the degree of pitch separation between the reference and test tones, schizophrenic subjects were no more susceptible to the effects of the backward mask than were controls. This finding supports the hypothesis that impaired auditory sensory memory functioning in schizophrenia reflects imprecise processing of auditory stimuli, i.e. that schizophrenic subjects are impaired whenever they need a mnemonic representation to solve a task or problem. The finding of normal auditory backward masking functioning in schizophrenic subjects contrasts sharply with previous research in which schizophrenia has been associated with increased susceptibility to visual backward masking. While there is a large auditory backward masking literature, this is the first study of auditory backward masking in schizophrenia.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
