Nonverbal priming in amnesia

In this experiment, we examined whether a group of well-characterized amnesic patients would exhibit normal priming for novel nonverbal materials after a single exposure. Both amnesic patients and normal control subjects studied line figures and were then given a priming test in which they were asked to reproduce both old (studied) and new (unstudied) figures after a brief exposure. The measure of priming was the number of old patterns drawn correctly relative to the number of new patterns drawn correctly. Both subject groups reproduced more old patterns than new patterns, and the effect was similar in the two groups. In contrast, amnesic patients were significantly impaired on a recognition memory test for the items that had been presented. This study contributes to recent evidence that implicit memory can support the rapid acquisition of novel verbal and nonverbal information. Perceptual priming for such material is independent of the structures damaged in amnesia.