The Processing of Memories by Norman E. Spear

Author:Norman E. Spear
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317743835
Publisher: Psychology Press

These discrepancies are difficult to reconcile, not because there are mysteriously few differences between the conditions of these sets of experiments but because there are so many (see Butters & Cermak, 1974). The most obvious difference is in the subject populations, those of the Butters-Cermak group being alcoholics advanced to the stages of the Korsakoff syndrome and those of Weiskrantz-Warrington and their colleagues being primarily victims of brain damage from other sources. There also are procedural differences, such as the nature of the distractor tasks interpolated during the retention intervals. The latter difference might be understandable in terms of the effects different distractor tasks may have on how the subjects process the materials mnemonically. There is evidence to indicate that the nature and effectiveness of such processing is different in amnesics and normals, and certain distractor tasks may enhance this difference. We shall return to this point shortly.

Retrograde effects. Although amnesics characteristically are impaired in terms of retention for events during a period of several days or several months preceding the onset of their illness, their retention for earlier years and for childhood conventionally has been considered to be normal. This conclusion is questioned by the results of a study by Sanders and Warrington (1971). As a test of long-term retention in patients suffering amnesia attributable to brain damage, these investigators constructed a questionnaire concerning events of the past 40 years. The test required subjects to recall or recognize (from among several alternatives) the correct answer to items concerning either past events or the identification of famous persons. The results of this test given to five amnesic patients and 200 normal control subjects of about the same age are shown in Figure 6.2. The results indicate clearly that there is a retention deficit for past events that matches the deficit for recent events. The implication is that, at least for items that are not heavily overlearned, amnesics suffer deficits in retention for memories acquired prior to their illness as well as for those acquired subsequently.

Figure 6.2 Relative accuracy by amnesic patients and nonamnesic control patients in response to questionnaire items (either free recall or multiple choice) associated historically with specific years during the patients’ lives (adapted from Sanders and Warrington, 1971).

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