Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H F Crovitz.
The probability and features of memory concerning former head injuries with loss of consciousness was assessed in two formats: a group-test questionnaire and a retest using personal individual interview. Results are given concerning the greater likelihood of reporting short 'permanent' retrograde amnesias in the interview.
An experiment which varied presentation-time of a list of 20 sentences relating pairs of words was done. The subjects were 94 undergraduates. Processing variations included for some groups instructions to use visual imagery, and retrieval variations included recall and matching recognition. The results indicate that variations in presentation-time are strongly related to memory retrieval. Several experiments are reviewed, and the importance of specifying presentation-time in studies of memory-retraining in brain-damaged patients is emphasized.
Recall failures can be traced to inadequate encoding and unfocussed retrieval search. A method is given for encouraging deep and elaborate encoding of a list of words, and two brain-damaged patients who were unable to recall the list at first, were shown to retrieve many of the words when retrieval cues were given by the examiner.
The literature provides little direction on how to overcome difficulties which some brain-damaged patients have in acquiring imagery mnemonics as a memory aid during the period of anterograde amnesia. For those interested in the therepeutic usefulness of imagery mediation, we provide a detailed account of the acquisition of some mnemonic skill in three brain-damaged patients who initially failed in using visual imagery mediators to recall words lists.
Measurement of retrieval of episodic memories ascribed to the various years of early childhood was made over a three-month period of search by 17 normal young adults. The distribution of episodes ascribed to various ages is described, and it is shown that the recovery of memory from early childhood tends to show features of shrinking retrograde amnesia. Methods which were used to recover very early episodes are described, and implications for the study of shrinking retrograde amnesia in brain-damaged patients are discussed.
Two experiments were designed to test methodological assumptions basic to the television questionnaire technique in order to analyze its appropriateness in assessing forgetting in long-term memory. After controlling for confounding variables in the technique as it is presently used, a non-linear function of time period of television program on recognition response to that program's title was found. Reported television viewing habits had a significant effect on recognition score. The relevance of these findings in regard to the quantitative study of retrograde amnesia is discussed.
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