Fragmented Selves: Recall of Self-Referenced Adjectives and the Self-Schema in Schizophrenia

Abstract

The self-schema has been implicated in the social and cognitive disabilities found in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that the self-schema is relatively disorganized and unstable in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy individuals. Few studies have examined this hypothesis in the literature, as the self-schema in schizophrenia is not yet fully understood. Testing this hypothesis, mean recall for 20 adjectives was compared between 20 adult male participants with schizophrenia and 20 adult male nonclinical participants under two levels of processing: semantic and self-referential. Results showed that self-referencing facilitated memory (i.e., the selfreference effect). There was a significant difference in the mean recall of the nonclinical participants under the two encoding conditions, but this difference was not significant for schizophrenia patients. That is, schizophrenia patients showed a global impairment in word recall compared to the nonclinical participants, and the self-reference effect was not shown. Accordingly, treatment should aim to ameliorate these deficits in self-concept and social cognition in addition to the standard rehabilitation repertoire.