Actors but not scripts: the dissociation of people and events in retrograde amnesia

We describe our further investigations of the retrograde amnesia in a single case. R.F.R. became globally amnesic following an attack of Herpes Simplex Encephalitis. He could generate and recognize superordinate level information about the vast majority of proper names including the names of people but he was very impaired at giving information about what had "happened" to these same individuals. He could also provide detailed information about family friends but he could not recall salient major personal episodes in which these same individuals had been involved. Knowledge of people appears to be represented in a different way to that of events, even when a singular event has provided the main or only opportunity for learning about the individual.