Investigating the role of verbal episodic memory and judgement of learning in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Effects of cognitive behavioral therapy

Studies investigating memory processes and memory confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) provided equivocal results. Besides these contradictory findings about memory and memory confidence, it is an almost generally accepted finding that metacognition and meta-memory processes are the central cognitive problems in OCD. It was also proposed that metacognitive processes may cause cognitive impairment in individuals with OCD. Moreover, it has been suggested that CBT may have improved one's perspective and confidence in one's cognitive performance. This study aimed to investigate the role of verbal episodic memory and metacognitive judgments (judgment of learning: JOL) in OCD, and to examine changes after cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). For this purpose, clinical measurements were obtained from a total of 96 participants, including 46 individuals diagnosed with OCD and 50 controls. They were asked to complete an experimental task assessing verbal episodic memory performance and OCD evaluations. All of these measurements were collected from the OCD group both before and after 10 sessions of CBT. Likewise, the same measurements were taken from the healthy control group matched with the OCD group in terms of age, education, and gender. As a result, after CBT, an increase was observed in the JOL judgments and accuracy of the OCD group, while such a difference was not observed in their memory performances.