Hallucinations have been found associated with false detection or
false recognition of acoustic/verbal material in several studies. We
investigated whether they were also linked with false recognition of
pictures. Furthermore, an association between hallucinations and deficits
in remembering temporal context was observed in previous research
on schizophrenia. We investigated whether the association extends to
deficits in remembering spatial context. Forty-one patients with
schizophrenia underwent a visual memory task. Sixteen mixed
black-and-white and colored pictures were presented at different
locations. Participants had to recognize the pictures among distractors,
then to recall the spatial context of the presentation of the target
pictures. Results showed that auditory hallucinations were associated with
poor recognition of the colored pictures. When recognition efficiency and
negative symptoms were statistically controlled, auditory hallucinations
were also associated with increased response bias toward false recognition
of nontarget pictures, and with errors in remembering the spatial context.
No associations with visual hallucinations emerged. Anhedonia was
associated with response bias, in the direction opposite to that of
hallucinations. In conclusion, the association between hallucinations and
response bias extends across modalities to picture recognition. The
association between hallucinations and temporal context impairment extends
to spatial context. (JINS, 2007, 13, 832–838.)