Compulsive hoarding has been defined as the accumulation of and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to have little or no value, to the extent that ones living spaces are precluded from everyday use. Current cognitive behavioral models of compulsive hoarding view hoarding as a multifaceted problem stemming from information processing deficits in the areas of memory, attention, decision making, and categorization. The vast majority of research to date has focused on establishing such deficits as vulnerability factors in the development of compulsive hoarding. However, there is also reason to suspect that the experience of compulsive hoarding may in turn be responsible for deficits in information processing. Thus, the current study seeks to expand upon the existing literature by examining the relationships between clutter and information processing deficits through an experimental test of a Scar model. Participants included 72 individuals from the community and undergraduate population. Participants were randomized into either a clutter or non-clutter condition and asked to complete various neuropsychological and behavioral tasks of memory, attention, decision making, and categorization. Results revealed that individuals with elevated levels of hoarding exhibited greater deficits in the areas of attention, decision making, and categorization. Inconsistent with prediction however, it appears that individuals in the clutter condition relative to the non-clutter condition did not experience greater deficits in information processing. The current findings provide useful information regarding potential vulnerability factors for compulsive hoarding and add considerably to a growing body of literature on hoarding behaviors. Moreover, the current study is the first to examine how the presence or absence of clutter might influence or contribute to deficits in information processing.
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