RECENCY JUDGMENTS IN WERNICKE-KORSAKOFF AND POST-ENCEPHALITIC AMNESIA- INFLUENCES OF PROACTIVE-INTERFERENCE AND RETENTION INTERVAL

This study further examines the performance of diencephalic and tempor al lobe amnesics on the recency judgement task (Parkin, Leng and Hunki n, 1990). The two patient groups were represented by patients with Wer nicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) and post-Herpes simplex encephalitis (H SE). Experiment 1 demonstrated that poorer recency judgements by WKS p atients were not due to a general proactive interference effect, but f rom an inability to remember which items had been designated targets o n a given trial. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the superior performan ce of the HSE group was not attributable to a putative faster forgetti ng rate. In addition, the study found no relationship between recency judgements and degree of frontal lobe impairment. It is concluded that diencephalic damage has a particular effect on the ability to make re cency judgements and that this represents a fundamental difference bet ween diencephalic and temporal lobe amnesia. Theoretical interpretatio ns of this difference are discussed.