Does Low Memory Confidence Drive Excessive Reassurance Seeking in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Insights from a Novel In Vivo Study

The factors driving excessive reassurance seeking in obsessive-compulsive disorder are incompletely understood. We investigated whether low memory confidence, which drives compulsive checking, may also lead to excessive reassurance seeking during a novel in vivo contamination-based task. Undergraduates (N = 91) completed a memory test and received sham positive or negative performance feedback. Participants then viewed a complicated cleaning video and completed a corresponding cleaning task whilst their reassurance seeking was covertly coded. Afterwards, participants rated their anxiety, confidence, and experimenter responsibility for task outcomes. The novel laboratory task induced high levels of reassurance seeking from participants (median = 5 reassurance requests). There was no evidence that manipulating memory confidence altered reassurance seeking. Greater reassurance seeking was correlated with decreased performance confidence and increased ratings of experimenter responsibility for negative cleaning task outcomes. Memory beliefs may not initiate reassurance seeking, suggesting a possible dissimilarity between reassurance seeking and compulsive checking.