ORIGINAL ARTICLE Assessment of prospective memory in schizophrenia using the Chinese version of the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test: A controlled study Raymond W.C. Au 1,6 * PhD, David Man 2 PhD, David Shum 3 PhD, Edwin Lee 4 MBChB MSc MRCPsych, Yu-Tao Xiang 5,6 MD PhD, Gabor S. Ungvari 7 PhD FRANZCP FRCPsych & Wai-Kwong Tang 6 MD 1 Occupational Therapy Department, North District Hospital, Hong Kong, China 2 Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China 3 School of Psychology and Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia 4 Department of Psychiatry, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 5 Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China 6 Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 7 School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia Keywords intelligence, neuropsychological test, prospective memory, retrospective memory, schizophrenia Correspondence Raymond W.C. Au PhD, Occupational Therapy Department, North District Hospital, Hong Kong 852, China. Tel: +852 26837 619 Fax: +852 26837863 Email: raymondau@hotmail.com Authors’ contribution: All authors contributed to the design of the study. Raymond W.C. Au, Edwin Lee and Yu-Tao Xiang contributed to data collection and analysis. Raymond W.C. Au wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Gabor S. Ungvari, David Shum, David Man and Wai-Kwong Tang reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Received 29 January 2012 Accepted 31 May 2012 DOI:10.1111/j.1758-5872.2012.00217.x Abstract Introduction: Data on the psychometric assessment of prospective memory (PM) are limited. The Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT) and its Chinese version (CAMPROMPT-C) have been applied to a variety of clinical conditions except for chronic schizophrenia. This controlled study explored the clinical utility of the CAMPROMPT-C in patients with schizophrenia by comparing their PM performance with that of normal controls. Methods: Forty-four schizophrenia patients and 44 normal controls formed the study sample. Sociodemographic characteristics, PM, retro- spective memory, and intelligence were measured in all subjects. Patients’ psychopathology was rated with a standardized instrument. Results: Patients performed worse than normal controls on both the sum and subscale scores of the CAMPROMPT-C. Patients had comparable performances in PM subtypes. Bivariate analyses revealed that education level, intelligence, and retrospective memory were associated with PM functions. Discussion: The study supports the clinical utility of the CAMPROMPT-C in chronic schizophrenia and corroborated the significant relationship between PM and education, intelligence, and retrospective memory. Introduction Prospective memory (PM), the memory for undertak- ing activities in the future (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990), includes phases of encoding of an intention, retention of this information, retrieval of the inten- tion, execution of the intended action, and evaluation of the outcome (Ellis and Freeman, 2008). Two sub- types of PM, time-based PM (TBPM) and event-based PM (EBPM), have been described (Guynn, 2008). TBPM is remembering to perform an action at a spe- cific time in the future, whereas EBPM refers to remembering to perform an action when an external cue appears. PM is a relatively new construct, but has generated considerable research interest over the past decade because it has important theoretical and Official journal of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists Asia-Pacific Psychiatry ISSN 1758-5864 1 Copyright © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd