Orientation effects in amnesics' recognition memory: Familiarity-based access to object attributes

This study examined whether amnesic patients retain information about the individuating features of objects. TO this end, we examined the effects of study-test orientation changes on object recognition and object naming, and we assessed memory for orientation directly. Like control subjects, amnesic patients were adversely affected by a change in orientation in recognition memory, but not in object naming. This sensitivity to orientation in recognition memory occurred despite the fact that amnesic patients had poor recollection of the studied orientation. Because orientation effects in amnesia were mediated neither by priming nor by recollection, we hypothesize that they are mediated by familiarity-based processes that are sensitive to an object's specific presentation. (C) 2000 Academic Press.