Dictionary of Biological Psychology
Learning capacities that are spared in humans and non-human animals with impairments of MEMORY. Which learning abilities are impaired and which ones are spared depends on the neurological condition or the type of brain damage that produces the behavioural deficits.
For example, patients with an AMNESIA following damage to the medial TEMPORAL LOBE show impaired declarative learning (see DECLARATIVE MEMORY) but preserved PROCEDURAL LEARNING and preserved PRIMING effects. By contrast, in patients with damage to the BASAL GANGLIA (for example PARKINSON’S DISEASE), procedural learning can be impaired whereas declarative learning capacities may be relatively preserved. That different types of brain damage produce distinct patterns of preserved and impaired learning capacities is taken as strong support for the notion of MULTIPLE MEMORY SYSTEMS.
See also: explicit memory; implicit memory; skill learning
STEFAN KÖHLER
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