Journal

The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

[Vol.17 No.4 contents]
Japanese/English

Full Text of this Article
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ArticleTitle The mere exposure effect in anterograde amnesic patients
Language J
AuthorList Yayoi Kan1), Satoshi Mochizuki1), Mitsuru Kawamura2)
Affiliation 1) Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, University of Tokyo
2) Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine
Publication Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 17 (4), 241-247, 2001
Received Dec 4, 2000
Accepted May 7, 2001
Abstract The mere exposure effect is the phenomenon that we prefer previously exposed stimuli to novel stimuli. This effect has been widely known and studied in psychological field, but there are few studies that deal with brain-damaged patients. In this study, we examined this effect in two anterograde amnesic patients, who had damaged their basal forebrain and bilateral hippocampus, respectively. They could not recognize previously exposed targets. Nevertheless, they preferred targets to novel distracters. This means that the mere exposure effect is shown even in the anterograde amnesic patients, and that the effect doesn't need explicit memory system.
In addition, we compared this effect seen in amnesic patients with that in normal controls. The normal controls could recognize targets and also preferred them to novel distracters, but their choosing rate of targets was lower than amnesic patients. It suggests that the mere exposure effect is much stronger in amnesic patients who can not recognize targets than in normal controls.
Keywords subliminal mere exposure effect, anterograde amnesia, explicit memory

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