Presentation to the British Psychological Society
Wessex Branch Student ConferenceSaturday 10th May
University of Surrey
The relationship between compulsive checking tendencies, visuospatial
processing and meta-memory.
Liz BeckinghamUniversity of Winchester
Supervisor: Dr Rhiannon Jones
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Introducing the researcher
Research area & rationale
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OCD Checking
Figure 1: Associations suggested by previous research
VisuospatialMemory
Precuneus often abnorm
al in OCD
Meta-Memory
Evidence of impairment
Precuneus is activated durin
g
memory confidence asse
ssment
Feeling of knowing
Cognitive Confidence
Precuneus is activated during
retrieval of visuospatial material
More impaired in checkers;impairment caused by checking
Poor confidence a predictor of checking; may cause it
OCD characterised by lack of confidence in cognition and FOK
Precuneus
Evidence of abnormal G
M/
WM
volume in precuneus
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Hypotheses
1. negative correlation between visuospatial accuracy and checking scores
2. positive correlation between trait cognitive confidence scores and checking scores
3. negative correlation between FOK judgements and checking scores.
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Method
• Ethics• Correlation design• Sample• Materials: questionnaire; computerised trials
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Questionnaire
• Existing self-report measures
– Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory – Revised (OCI-R)
– Meta-cognition Questionnaire (MCQ) (cognitive confidence subscale only)
– Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
– State Trait Anxiety Inventory (trait subscale only) (STAI-T)
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E-prime visuospatial task
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Results (1): visuospatial memory
• Checking and accuracy – sig negative correlations at both loads – rho = -.31 for both, p=.014 (high) and p=.015 (low).
• Median split showed sig effect of checkingNegative correlation between visuospatial accuracy and
checking scores
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Results (2): meta-memory
• Checking and meta-memory– sig correlation (rho=.35, p=.005)
• Meta-memory also showed sig correlations with– Overall OCD– Washing, hoarding and neutralising– Depression/anxiety symptoms
positive correlation between trait cognitive confidence scores and checking scores
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Results (3): feeling of knowing (FOK)
• No significant association found• However, FOK and accuracy found to correlate only
for non/low-checking group (right scatterplot) checkers non/low-checkersnegative correlation between FOK judgements and
checking scores
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Conclusions
• Visuospatial deficit only found in checkers• Meta-memory deficit found across OCD• Benefits of considering OCD by dimensions
Questions?
Liz Beckingham MA Cantab MSc
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