EPISODIC MEMORY DISTORTIONS IN INDIVIDUALS PRONE TO PSYCHOSIS

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether individuals that exhibited a high frequency of episodic memory distortions had elevated psychosis symptoms. A comprehensive review of past literature revealed a neurocognitive relationship between schizophrenia spectrum disorders, memory impairments, and frontal lobe functioning. In addition, previous research explored the formation of memory distortions based from wordlists and picture tasks. Subsequently, an original measure called the Memory Distortion Questionnaire was created to classify 50 participants as having a high (High Distortion) or low (Low Distortion) frequency of experiencing memory distortions. The primary hypothesis of this study examined whether individuals within the HD group had increased scores on measures of psychosis compared to the LD group. Statistically significant results from an ANOVA supported expectations of the primary hypothesis. Also, two secondary hypotheses were constructed to assess differences in executive and hemispheric functioning between groups, but no statistically significant results were found.