Nm. Hunkin et Aj. Parkin, RECENCY JUDGMENTS IN WERNICKE-KORSAKOFF AND POST-ENCEPHALITIC AMNESIA- INFLUENCES OF PROACTIVE-INTERFERENCE AND RETENTION INTERVAL, Cortex, 29(3), 1993, pp. 485-499
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.