INTACT TEMPORAL MEMORY IN AMNESIC PATIENTS

Current theories propose that amnesia is caused by an inability to enc ode the temporal properties of recent events and/or to associate infor mation across time. The present investigation tested this postulation by manipulating the recency effect which is theorized to be caused by the encoding of temporal information. The continual-distractor paradig m was used to vary the temporal properties of recently presented lists . Amnesics' recall responded normally to the temporal manipulations in lists ranging from 18-54 s. In contrast, overall recall was impaired compared to normals in all conditions and across all positions, includ ing the final position. These findings dissociate memory for temporal information from overall levels of recall. They suggest that the amnes ic patient's memory deficit is not caused by an inability to encode te mporally associated information. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.