Amnesia and memory for modality information

Abstract

In this study, lists of words were used in a mixed-modality fashion (some read aloud by the subject, others read only by the experimenter). They were presented in this format to both Korsakoff amnesics and matched controls, with subjects only told to remember the words themselves. Controls and amnesics were matched on item-memory (forced-choice recognition) by using longer lists, tested at longer delays, for the controls. Despite this, however, the controls performed significantly better than the amnesics at modality-identification judgements about the items chosen during recognition. Whether the reported result reflects the memory deficit which causes amnesia, or whether it is more properly attributed to additional (frontal lobe) pathology present in only certain amnesics, is discussed.