PRESERVATION OF IMPLICIT MEMORY FOR NEW ASSOCIATIONS IN GLOBAL AMNESIA

This study examined whether amnesic patients have presented implicit m emory for new associations between unrelated words, as measured by rep etition printing, despite impaired explicit memory for such new associ ations. Prior studies provide conflicting and ambiguous results. Amnes ic and control participants read aloud visually presented, unrelated w ord pairs and then attempted to identify old, recombined, and new word pairs shown at threshold durations. Amnesic and control groups showed equivalent priming for new associations by identifying old pairs bett er than recombined pails. Amnesic patients Ft ere impaired on a matche d explicit test of,memory for new associations. The presented priming in amnesia indicates that implicit,memory for new associations need no t be supported by the mnemonic processes and brain structures that med iate explicit memory for new associations.