Abstract: There are disagreements in the interpretation of memory deficits in obsessive-compulsive symptom individuals. Some researchers proposed general memory deficits in the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) population, while others believe that these deficits are a result of the bias toward OC-provoking information. Apart from this, there also is a hypothesis concerning the lack of confidence or metamemory deficits in OCD. The purpose of the present study is to clarify the pathology of OCD, using the information processing approach. Directed forgetting and metamemory performance (feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments) for neutral and OC-provoking material was tested in high and low obsessive-compulsive symptom subjects.
Method
Sixteen high obsessive-compulsive symptom individuals (HOCs) and sixteen low obsessive-compulsive symptom individuals (LOCs) were required to study a list of neutral and OC-provoking word pairs according to the “F” or “R” instructions. After an initial cued-recall test, they provided their FOK judgments for the unrecalled word pairs, followed by a recognition test.
Results
The results indicated that for neutral words, HOCs exhibited reduced directed forgetting compared to LOCs; this suggests that they were unable to forget unnecessary information. Further, the HOCs were confused in metamemory on account of the different sources and types of words, as reflected in their FOK ratings. Moreover, FOK judgments of the HOCs for OC-provoking words were unreliable predictors of their recognition performance.
Conclusions
The study supported the idea of a general memory deficit in HOCs; further, it indicated that this may be due to the weak differentiation in HOCs. Further, HOCs exhibited worse metamemory for OC-provoking words and had no forecast for their future performance. In conclusion, HOCs exhibited both real memory and metamemory deficits

Key words: OCD, directed forgetting, metamemory, FOK