Implicit and explicit memory in pregnancy

Abstract

This study examined the issue of whether there are objective impairments in memory in pregnant women and in women who have given birth in the last three months. Fortysix pregnant women, and sixteen recently pregnant women were tested on implicit measures of stem completion and homophone priming, and explicit measures of recall and recognition. Subjects were also required to make subjective ratings of their current memory functioning. A dissociation was observed between implicit and explicit memory for the pregnant and recently pregnant groups, and between implicit measures of memory for multigravid subjects. Explicit memory was found to be unimpaired for all groups, whereas, implicit memory as measured by stem completion was found to be impaired for the primigravid pregnant and recently pregnant subjects, but not for the multigravidae in these groups. Impairment was most marked in the first trimester of pregnancy and in the three-months post-pregnancy. Homophone priming was impaired for both the primigravid and the multigravid, pregnant, and recently pregnant subjects. The perceived changes in memory during pregnancy and three months post-pregnancy reflect the objective changes. Both the primigravidae and the multigravidae in these groups perceived their memory to be poorer compared to normal, but the primigravidae rated their current memory as significantly worse than the multigravidae. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and current theoretical accounts of memory, and suggestions made to account for the pattern of effects obtained.