A revised spatial serial learning and memory procedure using Corsi's block-tapping apparatus

The purpose of this study was to use Corsi's Block Tapping Test as a spatia l analog of Benton's Serial Digit Learning Test, using the cognitive neuros cience approach utilized in the California Verbal Learning Test. 60 normal participants, ages 19-52 years, were included and administered an 8-block s equence for 9 trials or until they recalled the entire sequence for 3 conse cutive errorless trials. The score was the number of blocks tapped in the c orrect serial order, An interference trial was administered. Following a 10 -min. delay, free recall of the original sequence, cued recall, and recogni tion measures were obtained. Retroactive interference was significant, but no proactive interference emerged. Scores showed a strong primacy effect. M ost participants who learned the sequence to the criterion of three success ive errorless trials recalled the sequence after the 10-min. delay. Scores on the cued recall and recognition trials fended to support their validity as less demanding retrieval tasks. The use of this spatial learning and mem ory procedure allows finer discriminations among nonverbal memory deficits and may facilitate direct comparisons with scores on verbal memory tasks su ch as Serial Digit Learning and the California Verbal Learning Test.