Encoding and Retrieval Processes in Long-Term Memory

In the first project, Encoding and Retrieval Processes in Long-Term Memory, Tyrone Cannon, Ph.D., UCLA Professor of Psychology, is using a novel behavioral science strategy probing the functional architecture of long-term memory and its disruption in the early course of schizophrenia. This project aims 1) To evaluate functional dissociations between episodic and familiarity-based retrieval and between retrieval and encoding processes in long-term memory in healthy subjects; and 2) To evaluate the possible differential relevance of episodic versus familiarity-based retrieval and of encoding versus retrieval processes in long-term memory in relation to symptom onset and functional outcome in schizophrenia. This is the first study to test whether behavioral and physiologic deficits in particular aspects of long-term memory precede and predict the onset of psychotic symptoms and whether these changes are differentially related to short-term changes in social and work outcome and to variability in the long-term course of functional outcome in schizophrenia. If behavioral and/or physiologic deficits in long-term memory functioning can improve the prediction of conversion to schizophrenia above that associated with prodromal behavioral features, this information could lead to better theoretical specification of the mechanisms underlying psychosis onset and eventually to improved preventive intervention strategies. The basic scientist collaborators for this project are Russ Poldrack, Ph.D., and Barbara Knowlton, Ph.D.. Other investigators for this project are Mark Cohen, Ph.D., and Theo van Erp, M.A..

Attention and Dual Task Interference

The second project, Attention and Dual Task Interference, is led by Keith Nuechterlein, Ph.D., Center Director and UCLA Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Department of Psychology, and Kenneth Subotnik, Ph.D., UCLA Research Psychologist and Associate Director of the Aftercare Research Program. This project, is a Translational behavioral science strategy to bring paradigms with greater analytic power to the study of attention in schizophrenia. Attentional deficits in schizophrenia have been hypothesized to reflect limitations in availability or allocation of processing resources that are not specific to type of elementary cognitive process. However, another prominent conception of attention in cognitive psychology that has not been examined in schizophrenia emphasizes the role of structural processing bottlenecks that involve an inability to carry out certain elementary cognitive operations in two tasks simultaneously. Through a series of psychological refractory period studies, this project is testing the contrasting predictions of these two models. Harold Pashler, Ph.D., who serves as co-investigator of the University of California, San Diego, specializes in attention and has carried out basic experimental research on many aspects of attentional function.

Social Cognition: Interpersonal and Emotional Processes

The third project is Social Cognition: Interpersonal and Emotional Processes. Social cognition refers to how people think about other people. This project is intended to examine three aspects of social cognition across different phases of illness (prodromal, first-episode, and chronic). The three aspect of social cognition include: 1) the ability to identify types of interpersonal relationships, 2) the ability to know what people are thinking, and 3) the ability to process emotional communication. This project will provide a better understanding about how areas of social cognition are related to community functioning in schizophrenia across phases of illness. The project is led by Michael Green, Ph.D., UCLA Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Others members of the team include Drs. William Horan, Kimmy Kee, Robert Kern, and Mark Sergi. The behavioral scientist collaborators on the project are: Alan Fiske (UCLA Department of Anthropology), Nick Haslam (University of Melbourne), and Peter Salovey (Yale University).

Stress and Emotional Reactivity

TThe fourth project, Stress and Emotional Reactivity, is designed to improve our understanding of how and when individuals vulnerable for schizophrenia respond to stress and emotionally-charged events. Stress has long been hypothesized to play an important role in the expression of vulnerability for schizophrenia and it remains a key component in theories of schizophrenia. Despite the prominent role attributed to stress, its actual contribution to the expression and course of schizophrenia has yet to be clearly specified. By focusing on patients in the prodromal and first episode phases of illness, there is the opportunity to examine how stress and emotional reactivity might contribute to the onset and progression of illness as well as to school/work, social and daily functioning. Comparisons between patients across early and chronic phases of illness can provide some indication as to when some abnormalities might develop. This project is led by Cindy Yee-Bradbury, Ph.D., UCLA Departments of Psychology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, in collaboration with Peter J. Lang, Ph.D., University of Florida and Shelley E. Taylor, Ph.D., UCLA Department of Psychology. Other members of the team include Kristopher Ian Mathis, Gretchen Sholty, Jane Sun, Terrance Williams and Peter Bachman.