The fate of memory: comment on McCloskey and Zaragoza.

McCloskey and Zaragoza (1985) argue that misleading postevent suggestions do not affect the availability of originally encoded information. Their hypothesis stems from empirical work using a modified paradigm in which no effect of postevent information is observed. Although their "no impairment" hypothesis is plausible, careful consideration of the predictions of their experimental test suggests that it may be insufficiently sensitive to reveal the impact of postevent information. A small effect of postevent information can be observed when their paradigm is repeated with a more sensitive recognition test. McCloskey and Zaragoza's no impairment hypothesis is also difficult to reconcile with numerous reports of "blend" memories that reflect a compromise between the original and postevent information.

Transient loss of consciousness through the eyes of a witness.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy of eyewitness observations of transient loss of consciousness. METHODS: Two sequential cohorts of psychology students unexpectedly viewed videos of a generalized tonic-clonic seizure (n = 125) and of reflex syncope (n = 104) during a lecture on an unrelated subject. Directly afterward, the students filled in a multiple-choice questionnaire regarding muscle tone, twitches, head deviation, eye closure, gaze deviation, drooling, and facial color. The consensus of experienced neurologists served as a gold standard. Even though not all items could be ascertained from the videos, the full range of questions was included to simulate clinical practice. RESULTS: Of all responses to the observable items on the syncope video (flaccid limbs, twitches of one shoulder, head deviation), 44% were correct, 28% erroneous, and 29% had "I do not know" responses. The observable items on the epilepsy video (stiff limbs, twitches of all limbs, normal facial color, drooling, no head deviation) yielded 60% correct responses, 18% erroneous responses, and 22% "I do not know" responses. Regarding features that were not visible on the videos, 77% of the responses were accurate ("I do not know"), whereas 23% erroneously provided an observation. Of all items observable on both videos, muscle tone was the most accurately recalled item. CONCLUSIONS: An eyewitness account of a single episode of transient loss of consciousness (TLOC) should be interpreted with caution because salient features are frequently overlooked or inaccurately recalled. However, the accuracy of the eyewitness observations of TLOC differs per item; muscle tone was reported with high accuracy.

Performance of epileptic patients in continuous reaction-time situations.

Through the use of a 4-choice continuous reaction-time paradigm, the hypothesis that epiliptic patients have frequent lapses of attention was tested. Control subjects were nonepileptic mentally retarded subjects matched for IQ and CA. Experimental variables were: paced and self-paced work, massed and spaced work periods, and short or long stimulus exposition. The epileptic patients performed well as compared to the control group or to nonretarded persons with respect to reaction time, accuracy, and the occurrence of mental blocks. No abnormal disturbance of attention was clearly detected. This conclusion leads to the possibility that even for patients with severe epilepsy, some tasks can be defined that they can perform successfully.