van den Hout Marcel, Kindt Merel
Utrecht University, Postbus 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2004 Jun;35(2):165-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2004.04.007.
Patients suffering from Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tend to check repeatedly and after checking episodes they tend to be uncertain about their memory for checked events. It seems plausible that memory distrust motivates checking, but why checking is repeated and why one check is not enough to reassure the patient is uncertain. To study this, an interactive computer animation displaying light bulbs or gas rings was developed and healthy participants were asked to engage in repeated checking. In five separate experiments we found that repeatedly checking the same class of items resulted in sharp decreases in detail and vividness of memory of the checked events while the accuracy of the memory remained intact. The phenomenological quality of the experienced memory distrust was highly similar to the ambivalence OCD patients tend to report about their memory after checking. Furthermore, there were some indications that repeated checking not only undermines trust in memory, but may also reduce the sense that one acted responsibly. The experimental preparation may be used as a model for OCD checking. The study suggests that repeated checking is sufficient to cause paradoxical effects on memory trust and that repeated checking is a counterproductive safety strategy.
患有强迫症（OCD）的患者往往会反复检查，并且在检查之后，他们往往对自己对已检查事件的记忆感到不确定。记忆不信任促使检查这一点似乎是合理的，但为何检查会反复进行，以及为何一次检查不足以让患者安心，这一点尚不确定。为了研究这一问题，开发了一个展示灯泡或煤气灶的交互式计算机动画，并要求健康参与者进行反复检查。在五个独立的实验中，我们发现反复检查同一类物品会导致对已检查事件的记忆细节和生动程度大幅下降，而记忆的准确性仍保持不变。所体验到的记忆不信任的现象学特征与强迫症患者在检查后倾向于报告的对其记忆的矛盾心理高度相似。此外，有一些迹象表明，反复检查不仅会削弱对记忆的信任，还可能会降低个人的责任感。该实验设置可作为强迫症检查的一个模型。该研究表明，反复检查足以对记忆信任产生矛盾的影响，并且反复检查是一种适得其反的安全策略。
