GCSE-ready- Home
- Lessons
- GCSE Psychology
- Retrograde and anterograde amnesia
Retrograde and anterograde amnesia
🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.
Brain injury or illness can cause amnesia: serious memory loss. Its two main types affect memory in opposite directions in time.
Retrograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia: loss of memories from before the brain injury or illness.
Symptoms: cannot recall past events, people or information learned before the damage; memories closest to the injury are often the most affected; the person can still make new memories after the injury; skills such as how to ride a bike are often kept.
Example: after a head injury, a person cannot remember where she lived or which school she went to, but can learn and remember new things.
Symptoms: cannot recall past events, people or information learned before the damage; memories closest to the injury are often the most affected; the person can still make new memories after the injury; skills such as how to ride a bike are often kept.
Example: after a head injury, a person cannot remember where she lived or which school she went to, but can learn and remember new things.
Anterograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new long-term memories after the injury or illness.
Symptoms: forgets new events and people quickly; may ask the same question many times; short-term memory still works for a few seconds; memories from before the damage are often still there; may still learn new skills without remembering learning them.
Example: HM (Henry Molaison) had parts of his brain including the hippocampus removed in 1953 to treat epilepsy. Afterwards he could not form new long-term memories, but improved at a mirror-drawing task with practice.
Symptoms: forgets new events and people quickly; may ask the same question many times; short-term memory still works for a few seconds; memories from before the damage are often still there; may still learn new skills without remembering learning them.
Example: HM (Henry Molaison) had parts of his brain including the hippocampus removed in 1953 to treat epilepsy. Afterwards he could not form new long-term memories, but improved at a mirror-drawing task with practice.
Both together
Some people have both types. Clive Wearing, a musician, had a brain infection in 1985. He lost many past memories and could not form new ones, yet could still play the piano.
Cases like these suggest that STM and LTM are separate stores, and that memory for skills is different from memory for events.
Cases like these suggest that STM and LTM are separate stores, and that memory for skills is different from memory for events.
After a car crash, Tom cannot remember anything about the week before the accident, but he remembers his hospital visitors. Which type of amnesia does he have?
- He has lost memories from before the injury.
- He can still form new memories (he remembers visitors).
Answer: Retrograde amnesia.
Retrograde amnesia is loss of memories from before brain damage, while new memories can still form. Anterograde amnesia is being unable to form new long-term memories after the damage, while older memories often remain. Cases like HM and Clive Wearing show memory has separate parts.
The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.
Check you have got it
Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.