Believe in yourself: Manipulating beliefs about memory causes checking

Abstract

One of the most common compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is repeated checking. Although individuals often report that they check to become more certain, checking has been shown to have the opposite effect - increased checking causes increased uncertainty. However, checking may also be thought of as beginning because of memory uncertainty. Beliefs about responsibility, over-estimation of threat, intolerance of uncertainty, perfectionism, and importance of and control of thoughts are already known to affect different aspects of OCD symptomatology. Beliefs about memory, however, are not currently considered to influence compulsive behaviour. In the current study, beliefs about memory were manipulated to test whether or not they affected urges to check. Ninety-one undergraduate participants received (positive or negative) false feedback about their performance on aspects of a standardized memory test, and then completed two additional memory tasks. Their urges to check following these tasks were assessed. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals in the low memory confidence condition had greater urges to check following the memory tasks than those in the high memory confidence condition, demonstrating that manipulations of beliefs about memory can influence checking. Results and implications are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural models of and treatments for OCD.

Uncertainty, checking, and intolerance of uncertainty in subclinical obsessive compulsive disorder: An extended replication

“…Thus, while previous research showed that patients with OCD in general perform more checking behavior than healthy controls (Jaafari et al, 2013;Kim, Roh, Kim, & Cha, 2012), and that uncertainty induces greater urges to check (Alcolado & Radomsky, 2011), the present study combined these findings. It showed that yet mild uncertainty, unrelated to obsessions, promotes actual checking behavior in OCþ but not OC À individuals.…”

Perfectionism dimensions as predictors of symptom dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder

“…While it may seem intuitive Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic that doubt about completing a task begets checking-a direction supported by some research (e.g., Cougle, Salkovskis, & Wahl, 2007;Nedeljkovic, Moulding, Kyrios, & Doron, 2009)-some experimental studies have demonstrated the opposite direction, namely that checking elicits doubt about completing tasks as characterized by decreases in memory confidence (Alcolado & Radomsky, 2011;Boschen & Vuksanovic, 2007;van den Hout & Kindt, 2003). Thus, the relationship between DA and checking symptoms may be reciprocal, and prospective studies of individuals with OCD that take particular care to measure memory confidence may provide more insight into the cause-and-effect patterns of these entwined constructs.…”

From the laboratory to the clinic (and back again): How experiments have informed cognitive–behavior therapy for obsessive–compulsive disorder

“…For instance, experimental manipulations have consistently shown the direct impact of responsibility on checking (e.g., Arntz et al, 2007;Ladouceur et al, 1995;Lopatka & Rachman, 1995), making responsibility beliefs a fundamental component of the theory and a core target in CBT for OCD (e.g., Clark, 2004;Rachman, 2003). Recent experimental work has also provided support for the expansion of cognitive theory (e.g., Alcolado & Radomsky, 2011;Gagné & Radomsky, 2017) and for contemporary formulations of obsessions and compulsions (e.g., Lazarov et al, 2010), indicating that CBT for OCD is steadily expanding.…”

“…These beliefs include inflated responsibility, threat overestimation, intolerance for uncertainty, perfectionism, overimportance of thoughts, and beliefs about the need to control one's thoughts (e.g., Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group [OCCWG], 1997[OCCWG], , 2005. Other lines of research have proposed that metacognition, such as confidence in one's attention and perception (e.g., Hermans et al, 2008) and negative beliefs about memory (e.g., Alcolado & Radomsky, 2011), also plays a role in the development and maintenance of symptoms. Recent work further suggests that negative beliefs about losing control over one's thoughts and behavior should also be considered in cognitive models of OCD (Gagné & Radomsky, 2017).…”