Role of Verbal Mediation in Performance of Motor Tasks by Korsakoff Patients

Perceptual and Motor SkillsPublished 1 August 1973

Laird S. Cermak, Ronald Lewis, Nelson Butters, Harold Goodglass

DOI10.2466/pms.1973.37.1.259

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Citations75

SJR quartileQ3

SJR score0.61

SNIP0.84

TL;DR

It was concluded that the verbal encoding deficit of Korsakoff patients can explain their difficulty in learning motor tasks involving verbal mediation.

Abstract

9 patients with Korsakoff's disease were examined for their ability to learn a finger maze (verbally mediated) and a pursuit-rotor (non-verbally mediated) task. Such patients (matched on IQ and age) were significantly worse than either 9 alcoholic or 9 normal control patients on the finger-maze task but were similar to both groups on the pursuit-rotor task. It was concluded that the verbal encoding deficit of Korsakoff patients can explain their difficulty in learning motor tasks involving verbal mediation.

Keywords

MedicineBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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