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Dissociation of implicit and explicit knowledge in a case of psychogenic retrograde amnesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2009

Jeffrey R. Campodonico  and
Sharilyn Rediess
Jeffrey R. Campodonico
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine
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Abstract

There have been few studies of psychogenic amnesia based on a cognitive or neuropsychological framework. In the present study, a patient with acute onset of profound psychogenic retrograde amnesia was examined. Although her performance on neuropsychological tasks revealed intact anterograde memory, language functioning, visuospatial and constructional skills, and mental speed and flexibility, she displayed severe impairments on a variety of retrograde memory tasks. Furthermore, initial observations revealed inconsistencies between the patient’s recall of semantic knowledge on direct questioning and her ability to demonstrate the use of this knowledge on indirect tasks. To test this formally, we devised an indirect remote knowledge task to examine a possible dissociation between explicit and implicit memory. Two healthy subjects matched for age, gender, education, occupation, and estimated IQ were also tested. As predicted, the findings demonstrate implicit knowledge despite impaired explicit recall for the same material. (JINS, 1996, 2, 146–158.)

Keywords

Psychogenic amnesiaNeuropsychologyImplicit memory
Type
Case Study
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 146 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 1996

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