Intact temporal memory in amnesic patients.

Current theories propose that amnesia is caused by an inability to encode the temporal properties of recent events and/or to associate information across time. The present investigation tested this postulation by manipulating the recency effect which is theorized to be caused by the encoding of temporal information. The continual-distractor paradigm was used to vary the temporal properties of recently presented lists. Amnesics' recall responded normally to the temporal manipulations in lists ranging from 18-54 s. In contrast, overall recall was impaired compared to normals in all conditions and across all positions, including the final position. These findings dissociate memory for temporal information from overall levels of recall. They suggest that the amnesic patient's memory deficit is not caused by an inability to encode temporally associated information.