Intact text-specific reading skill in amnesia.

Amnesic patients were studied to determine whether the acquisition and retention of item-specific skills can be supported by nondeclarative (implicit) memory. In Experiment 1, subjects read 2 different passages 3 times in succession. Reading speed improved at a similar rate in both amnesic patients and normal subjects and was specific to the text that was read. In Experiment 2, amnesic patients and normal subjects read a passage 3 successive times and then reread the same passage after a 0-s, 10-min, 2-hr, or 1-day delay. In both groups, facilitation persisted for at least 10 min and disappeared within 2 hr. It is suggested that facilitated reading speed depends importantly on both semantic and perceptual information and that such information can be supported by nondeclarative memory.