Rate of forgetting in amnesia: II. Recall and recognition of word lists atdifferent levels of organization

Amnesic rate of decline of free recall, cued recall, and recognition of wor d lists with different levels of organization was investigated in 2 experim ents. In Experiment 1, it was found that amnesic free recall of semanticall y related word lists declined at an accelerated rate, whereas free recall o f lists of unrelated words declined at a normal rate. Cued recall and recog nition performance of both kinds of word lists appeared to decline at a nor mal rate. In Experiment 2, the results of the free-recall and recognition c onditions were replicated using an improved experimental design. The observ ed amnesic forgetting pattern is interpreted as arising from an impairment in consolidation of long-term memory for complex associations between 2 or more items and their study context that is caused by extended hippocampal s ystem lesions.