ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Psichiatrica 2016 March;57(1):22-33

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Noetic and autonoetic memory in persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia: an explorative study

Francesca CAPOZZI ¹, Francesca M. BOSCO ^{1, 2}, Maurizio TIRASSA ¹

¹ Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; ² Neuroscience Institute of Turin, Turin, Italy

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate noetic vs. autonoetic memory in persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a population with severe and well-documented memory impairments.
METHODS: We created a new assessment tool (REmembering Public Events - REPE) to investigate noetic and autonoetic aspects of memories concerning public events and make a direct comparison between the two. We administered the REPE interview to 18 patients with schizophrenia and 18 controls.
RESULTS: The results showed that the autonoetic aspects of memory are better preserved than the noetic ones both in healthy persons and in persons with schizophrenia, albeit within a general impoverishment of the latter’s performance.
CONCLUSION: This importantly remarks the value of autobiographical memory in the whole memory system, showing that — also in a population so impaired in the memory abilities — aspects related to the self and to personal experience remain more vivid and accessible in the memory.