Background and objectives

Individuals with OCD tend to rely on explicit processing when performing implicit learning tasks. However, it is unclear whether this tendency reflects impaired capacity for implicit processing or a preference toward explicit processing. We sought to use a psychometrically valid task to examine the hypothesis that individuals with OCD have intact capacity for implicit learning.

Methods

Twenty-four participants with OCD and 24 non-psychiatric controls completed a modified artificial grammar learning task where acquisition and retrieval of the underlying grammatical rules are considered strictly implicit. In an exploratory condition designed to examine the effect of nudging participants toward controlled processing, 12 participants in each group were told that the stimuli presented at acquisition were composed according to grammatical rules and were encouraged to identify these rules.

Results

As predicted, participants with OCD acquired and expressed knowledge of the grammatical rule, demonstrating intact capacity for implicit learning, with no differences found between the OCD and controls on the extent of implicit learning. The exploratory intentional learning instructions had no effect, as participants in this condition were unable to adhere to the instructions, supporting the robust implicit nature of the artificial grammar learning task.

Limitations

The relatively small sample size did not allow comparisons between OCD symptom subtypes.

Conclusions

Our results provide evidence for intact implicit learning in OCD, and challenge previous studies suggesting a general deficiency in implicit learning in OCD.

中文翻译：

---

强迫症内隐学习的完整能力

背景和目标

强迫症患者在执行内隐学习任务时倾向于依赖外显处理。然而，尚不清楚这种趋势是否反映了内隐加工能力受损或对外显加工的偏好。我们试图使用一项心理测量学有效的任务来检验强迫症患者具有完整的内隐学习能力的假设。

方法

24 名强迫症患者和 24 名非精神病控制者完成了一项修改后的人工语法学习任务，其中基本语法规则的获得和检索被认为是严格隐含的。在旨在检查推动参与者对受控处理的影响的探索性条件中，每组 12 名参与者被告知，习得时呈现的刺激是根据语法规则组成的，并被鼓励识别这些规则。

结果

正如预测的那样，强迫症的参与者获得并表达了语法规则的知识，展示了完整的内隐学习能力，在内隐学习的程度上，强迫症和对照组之间没有发现差异。探索性有意学习指令没有效果，因为这种情况下的参与者无法遵守指令，支持人工语法学习任务的强大内隐性质。

限制

相对较小的样本量不允许在强迫症症状亚型之间进行比较。

结论

我们的结果为强迫症中完整的内隐学习提供了证据，并挑战了先前表明强迫症中内隐学习普遍存在缺陷的研究。