Inaccurate prediction of retrieval in a face matrix learning task after right frontal lobe lesions

This study partly supports the hypothesis that frontal lobe lesions cause i mpairment of metamemory. Fifty-nine patients with a focal brain lesion and 21 non-brain-damaged patients memorized a 4 X 4 matrix of 16 faces in 6 con secutive trials and predicted the number of locations of faces they would b e able to remember before each retrieval. When age-related impairment of le arning was adjusted, the patients with right posterior lesions were inferio r to the controls and to the patients with right frontal lesions on the tot al number of correctly placed faces. The patients with right frontal lesion s were less accurate than the patients with right posterior lesions or the controls in the prediction of retrieval. The inaccuracy of retrieval predic tion in the face test was associated with that in a word-list learning task .