Research article summary (published 22 Jul 2006):

Sub-clinical compulsive checkers' prospective memory is impaired.

Full Abstract

We explored whether prospective memory task performance is impaired in sub-clinical compulsive checkers. Participants were 126 undergraduate students who were divided into three groups:
high, medium, low checkers. Participants completed two objective tests of their episodic prospective memory, one event- and one time-cued, as well as two questionnaires that measured their subjective prospective memory. The results indicated that medium and high checkers performed worse than low checkers on the objective event-cued prospective memory task but that the three groups performed similarly on the objective time-cued prospective memory task. Moreover, high checkers reported experiencing every type of prospective memory failure more frequently than either the medium or the low checkers. We suggest that individuals with compulsive checking tendencies have an impaired prospective memory and that their increased experiences with prospective memory failures causes their intrusive concerns that tasks were not completed.

Learn Faster Today      Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Cuttler, Carrie (C); Graf, Peter (P);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4. cuttler(-atsign-)psych.ubc.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of anxiety disorders (J Anxiety Disord), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-; vol 21 (issue 3) : pp 338-52

Dates: Created 2007/03/19; Completed 2007/07/03;

PMID: 16860532, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Cues Female Humans Male

Memory Disorders - diagnosis; epidemiology Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis; epidemiology; psychology Questionnaires Severity of Illness Index Time Perception

Related articles

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

• Is age at symptom onset associated with severity of memory impairment in adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder? 30 Dec 2000
• Impairment of incidental memory for frequency in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. 28 Nov 2001
• Cognitive retraining for organizational impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder. 24 Sep 2006
• Object alternation test--is it sensitive enough to detect cognitive dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder? 30 Oct 2004
• Spontaneous and directed application of verbal learning strategies in bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. 30 Mar 2005
• Cognitive and emotion recognition deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder. 19 Nov 2006
• Missing the forest for the trees? Deficient memory for linguistic gist in obsessive-compulsive disorder. 30 Jul 2001
• Abnormal P600 in obsessive-compulsive disorder. A comparison with healthy controls. 13 Jul 2003
• The importance of importance in OCD memory research. 30 May 2004
• Selective cognitive deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder compared to panic disorder with agoraphobia. 30 Jan 2005

See 100+ related articles.

Related Article Map

Legend: - FREE Full text Article. - Abstract only. - Title only. More help.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.