Presentation to BPS Wessex Student Conference 10th May 2014

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

5

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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