DIRECT AND INDIRECT MEASURES OF CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION IN BRAIN-INJURED PATIENTS

Several investigators have suggested that amnesics fail to encode cont extual information. Support for this approach was derived from studies that tested the recall or recognition of different aspects of context ual information. In the present study, we tested the possibility that contextual information is encoded by patients with memory impairment b ut cannot be retrieved by direct methods. The distinction between dire ct and indirect recall of context is an important one that has not bee n sufficiently addressed with regard to brain-injured patients. Fiftee n brain-injured (BI) patients and 19 non-brain-injured (NBI) subjects participated in this study. The results show that when contextual info rmation was tested directly the NBI group outperformed the BI group. H owever, both groups benefited from the contextual cues (i,e., indirect measure). Results are interpreted in terms of the theoretical distinc tion between implicit and explicit memory regarding contextual informa tion; implicit memory is shown to be preserved in patients with memory impairment.