A Virtual Reality Investigation of Spontaneous Navigation Strategies and Spatial Memory Performance in Schizophrenia

There is strong evidence that schizophrenia (SCZ) patients perform poorly on spatial memory tasks. We investigated whether these deficits were associated with subdivisions of spatial memory (locale/cognitive map and taxon/response) or whether these deficits represented a general cognitive decline. This study investigated the types of spontaneous navigation strategies used by individuals living with SCZ to solve the 4 on 8 task. It was predicted that SCZ participants who spontaneously chose a spatial strategy would have the longest latencies and make the most errors. Four of five measures of latency and errors produced a medium magnitude effect size (