IMPAIRED PRIMING ON THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE TASK IN AMNESIA

The status of priming on the general knowledge test was examined in am nesia. Twenty amnesic and 20 control participants studied words (e.g., CHEETAH) under semantic and nonsemantic encoding conditions and attem pted to answer general knowledge questions (e.g., ''What is the fastes t animal on earth''?) under implicit and explicit retrieval instructio ns. The measure of memory was how many more test questions participant s answered correctly using studied than nonstudied words. Amnesic pati ents showed impaired memory under implicit and explicit retrieval inst ructions. Control participants showed equal memory under implicit and explicit retrieval instructions, a result indicating that they engaged in explicit retrieval in both instruction conditions. General-knowled ge priming appears to involve explicit retrieval that depends on media l-temporal and diencephalic regions damaged in amnesia.