THE STATE OF FUNCTIONING OF WORKING-MEMORY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

The functioning of working memory in schizophrenic patients according to Baddeley's model was examined in two complementary experiments. Exp eriment 1 comprised 27 patients and their controls, matched in age and level of education. Of this pool, 20 pairs participated also in Exper iment 2. Digit span, reading rate, and immediate serial recall assesse d the functioning of the phonological loop. Corsi and pattern span tas ks assessed the capacity of visuospatial memory. The central executive 's ability to monitor two concurrent tasks was evaluated in a dual tas k paradigm, and its capacity to control action in a random generation task. A preliminary jet of analyses showed that the patients' performa nces were reduced in all tasks explored, except in digit span. This in itial pattern changed consistently after controlling for reading rate. While slow and fast reading patients were comparable in demographic a nd clinical criteria, slow reading patients showed impaired performanc e in all tasks, whereas fast reading patients exhibited reduced perfor mance in visuo-spatial tasks and in the random generation task only. T he state of functioning of working memory in schizophrenia appears, th erefore, to vary consistently among the components of the model and is markedly impaired in slow reading patients. The implication of slowne ss are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.