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When true recognition suppresses false recognition: evidence from amnesic patients
D L Schacter1, M Verfaellie, M D Anes
1Harvard University, Department of Psychology, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge MA, 02138, USA. dls@wjh.harvard.edu
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|December 1, 1998
Summary
Healthy controls and amnesic patients exhibit different patterns of false recognition. This study explores how true recognition can suppress false recognition in memory disorders.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
Background:
- False recognition, mistaking novel items as familiar, is high in controls for semantic associates.
- Amnesic patients typically show reduced false recognition, implicating medial temporal/diencephalic structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how conditions affecting true recognition suppression influence false recognition in amnesic patients versus controls.
- To test if amnesic patients show greater or lesser false recognition based on memory suppression conditions.
Main Methods:
- Repeatedly presented lists of semantic associates to control subjects and two types of amnesic patients (Korsakoff and non-Korsakoff).
- Monitored true and false recognition levels across trials using signal detection analyses.
Main Results:
- All groups showed increasing true recognition over trials.
- Control subjects' false recognition decreased, while Korsakoff amnesics' increased, and non-Korsakoff amnesics showed fluctuations.
- Differences in false recognition patterns suggest distinct memory suppression mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- Veridical episodic memory mechanisms can suppress false recognition.
- The pattern of false recognition in amnesic patients depends on the interplay between true memory and suppression processes.