Process dissociation procedure: Memory testing in populations with brain damage

Abstract

During the last 25 years, dissociations in performance on indirect and direct tests of memory have typically been used to describe memory ability in amnesics. Unfortunately, these tests are not pure measures of processes. Rather than identifying processes with tasks, we use the “process dissociation procedure” (Jacoby, 1991) to separate contributions of automatic and consciously controlled memory processes in a brain-damaged population. Our results show that brain damage impairs consciously controlled processing, however, automatic uses of memory remain unaffected. In the discussion, we describe the advantages of using this procedure as a sensitive diagnostic memory test, as well as implications for memory retraining.