Priming arithmetic reasoning in an amnesic patient

The present study elucidates the role of implicit memory in problem solving by evaluating priming effects in a severely amnesic patient. An arithmetic series completion task was adopted to investigate the effects of lags, of items difficulty, as well as tho influence or different distractor tasks on priming numerical reasoning. The results indicated that the priming effect was maximized in difficult trials and disappeared after long lags. On the other, hand, the facilitation effect was not modulated by the nature of the distractor tasks. Critically, the experimental design controlled for perip heral facilitation of visual input and verbal output processes and a recogn ition task indicated that the of effect may not be attributed to explicit m emory. Thus, the facilitation must be located to a more central stage, poss ibly at the stage in which the abstract formula of the underlying algorithm are generated (C) 2000 Academic Press.