title: Rate of forgetting in amnesia: II. Recall and recognition of word lists at different levels of organization.
abstract: Amnesic rate of decline of free recall, cued recall, and recognition of word lists with different levels of organization was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, it was found that amnesic free recall of semantically related word lists declined at an accelerated rate, whereas free recall of lists of unrelated words declined at a normal rate. Cued recall and recognition performance of both kinds of word lists appeared to decline at a normal rate. In Experiment 2, the results of the free-recall and recognition conditions were replicated using an improved experimental design. The observed amnesic forgetting pattern is interpreted as arising from an impairment in consolidation of long-term memory for complex associations between 2 or more items and their study context that is caused by extended hippocampal system lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Sheffield, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Mayes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014825:Vocabulary