Abstract
Nine amnesic patients of mixed aetiology were studied in a duration-judgement task that allowed three measures of memory to be obtained. On each trial of the task, subjects attempted to read a briefly flashed word and to estimate the duration of the flash. Both word identification and duration estimation differed as a function of prior study. Words that were previously studied were identified more often and were estimated to have been flashed for a longer duration than were words not previously studied. These priming effects were found in young subjects in Experiment 1 and in amnesic patients and age-matched control subjects in Experiment 2. Priming effects were normal in the amnesic patients, whereas these patients were severely impaired at recognizing the same words. Previous results have also shown that amnesic patients can perform normally on certain memory tests, including priming of word identification. These results show that priming of duration judgements can also be included in the category of indirect measures of memory that are spared in amnesia.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1007-1018 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Neuropsychologia |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1991 |
Funding
A~,kn~,~r/rd~rrnenTrsh is research was supported by a Medical Research Council Project Grant (G8902677). We thank Les Law and Steve Rigby for technical assistance.W e thank two anonymous refereesf or helpful comments.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Behavioral Neuroscience