Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate whether there is a fast
decay in the iconic memory of patients with Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder (OCD) compared to healthy individuals by taking into
consideration the clinical OCD subtypes.
Method: The study included 74 patients diagnosed with OCD on
the basis of the DSM 5 criteria and 63 healthy individuals. The OCD
patients were grouped as washers, checkers, both washers and checkers,
and non-washers and non-checkers. All participants took a partial report
test (PRT) to compare iconic memory performance between the healthy
control group and the OCD group as a whole and in OCD subgroups.
Results: Loss of iconic memory did not differ between OCD group and
the controls. The iconic memory scores, expressed as the d’ values, at
specified time points correlated negatively with age and positively with
education duration in all groups.
When the subgroup data were analyzed by controlling for age, the
d1’value showing formation of iconic information was lower in the
washers subgroup in comparison to the checkers subgroup and the nonwashers
and non-checkers subgroup. The d7’ value was also lower in
the washers subgroup than in the the non-washers and non-checkers
subgroup and the healthy control group.
The iconic decay rate of the washers subgroup between the time points
d6’ and d7’ was significantly higher in comparison to the healthy
control group. The scores of OCD patients on the washing subscale
of the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) showed
negative correlations with the iconic memory scores at all time points.
Conclusion: This study showed that washer OCD patients may
have impaired iconic formation and fast iconic decay, which could
significantly affect the amount of information transferred to visual
memory.