Data-driven methodology illustrating mechanisms underlying word list recall: Applications to clinical research

摘要

ObjectiveWord list learning tasks such as the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT; ) are widely used to investigate recall strategies. Participants who recall the most words generally employ semantic techniques, whereas those with poor recall- such as patients with schizophrenia- rely on serial techniques. However, these conclusions are based on formulas that assume categories reflect semantic associations, bind strategy to overall performance, and neglect strategy changes over the five trials. Therefore, we derived novel measures- independent of recall performance- to compute strategies across trials and identify whether diagnosis predicts recall strategy.