BACKGROUND:
The context memory deficit hypothesis of schizophrenia postulates that the long-term deficit associated with this disorder is related to a memory impairment for contextual information.
METHOD:
To test this hypothesis, memory for temporal context was assessed in 33 patients with schizophrenia and 33 normal subjects, using a recency discrimination task.
RESULTS:
Whereas patients were able to recall and recognise target items, they were unable to recognise from among the target items those which had been most recently learned.
CONCLUSIONS:
Schizophrenia is associated with a temporal context memory deficit.