Implications of neuropsychological evidence for theories of normal memory

Abstract

The relation between neuropsychology and the study of normal cognitive function is discussed in the context of recent research on human memory. It is suggested that neuropsychological evidence has clear implications for the fractionation of human memory into subsystems. The distinction between long-term and short-term memory, between semantic and episodic memory, and the further fractionation of short-term or working memory all offer examples of concepts that have been successfully applied within the neuropsychological domain, and where the neuropsychological evidence has led to a modification and development of the original concept. Attempts to offer a cognitive interpretation of the amnesic syndrome are discussed. While none of these is entirely satisfactory, such work has led to a potentially important distinction between autobiographical memory or recollection, which is defective in amnesic patients, and a more perceptual or procedural learning process, which appears to be intact in such patients. Recent research on normal subjects is beginning to reveal a similar distinction. It is concluded that the relation between neuropsychology and the study of normal cognitive function continues to be an extremely fruitful one.