Do Patients With Schizophrenia Consciously Recollect Emotional Events Better Than Neutral Events?

OBJECTIVE: The influence of the emotional valence of words on conscious awareness was assessed in patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: The remember/know procedure was used to test 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 normal comparison subjects. RESULTS: Patients’ “remember” responses and conscious recollection were more frequent for emotional words than for neutral words. In contrast, the levels of “know” responses and familiarity were independent of emotional words. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with schizophrenia consciously recollected emotional words better than neutral words.