Perseveratie van motorisch gedrag en gerelateerd onzekerheid

Abstract

One of the most important symptoms of patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is repeated checking of an object of interest to feel less uncertain. This repeated checking actually increases uncertainty. The question rises how this repeated checking leads to more uncertainty. An explanation could be semantic satiation. Semantic satiation refers to the loss or decline of meaning of a word when it is overly repeated. Through the effect of semantic satiation a dissociative uncertainty could rise as well as a delay in decision making. In a study on semantic satiation Giele (2011) found that healthy participants showed an increase in reaction time on a decision-making task after repeating 20 checks compared to repeating 2 checks. This effect was explained as resulting from semantic satiation. An alternative explanation could be that fatigue influenced the reaction time in the 20 X checking condition instead of the semantic satiation effect. The objective of the present study is to test this possible effect of fatigue by making participants perform the same amount of checks in each condition. In line with the hypothesis and the results from earlier research (Giele, 2011) participants were found to be significantly faster on a specific condition of a decision-making task. To the contrary there was an interaction effect found which showed opposite results. Participants were found to be significantly faster on a specific condition of a decision-making test after 15 checks, than in the other conditions. There is no ready explanation for the divergence in the results from the Giele (2011) study and the present data.