title: Mental imagery, human memory, and the effects of closed head injury.
abstract: Several recent experiments suggest that mental imagery is relevant to an explanation of memory impairment resulting from neurological damage. This study compared a group of patients with recent closed head injuries with a control group of orthopaedic patients in their recall of concrete and abstract words. The head-injured subjects demonstrated a specific deficit in the recall of concrete material, which was interpreted as an impairment in the use of mental imagery as a form of elaborative encoding in long-term memory. It is suggested that the understanding of clinical conditions would be assisted by the application of the procedures and theoretical interests of experimental psychology.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000523:psychology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000523:psychology; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000523:psychology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class