Two experiments are reported which investigated a hypothesised disprop
ortionate deficit in amnesic spatial memory. Korsakoff amnesic memory
for the locations of objects or words placed on a grid was compared to
control memory which had been attenuated by longer delays before test
ing. The effects of incidental versus intentional encoding of the loca
tions were compared. No significant evidence of a disproportionate spa
tial memory deficit in Korsakoff amnesia was found, intentional instru
ctions did not improve Korsakoff amnesic spatial memory scores, and th
ere was no significant evidence of a trade-off of item memory and loca
tion memory specific to the Korsakoff amnesic group. Rather, intention
al instructions significantly reduced item memory in both Korsakoff am
nesics and normal controls, while having no effect on spatial memory.
When location was scored by lenient criteria, there was no significant
difference between groups for this measure, nor for recall and recogn
ition memory for these items. Thus Korsakoff amnesic memory was very s
imilar to that of control memory attenuated by longer delays before te
sting. The Korsakoff amnesic subjects' memory therefore differed quant
itatively rather than qualitatively from that of control subjects' mem
ory.