Orienting task effects on the recognition of humorous pictures in amnesic and normal subjects

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Abstract
Amnesic and control subjects were variously asked to remember, describe, and spot differences between similar versions of captionless cartoon pictures. There were three series, presented individually on consecutive days. Each series contained pictures differing in their experimenter-rated humour. Amnesics were tested at one and controls at 14 days to equate their recognition performance. In general the memory of both groups was similarly improved or impaired after respectively describing or spotting differences between pictures. The mnemonic advantage of humorous pictures was similar in extent for both groups and was similarly affected by the orienting tasks. It was also shown that the humour ratings of the two groups were closely comparable and that their memory was exceptional for pictures rated as funniest. Results are discussed in terms of possible encoding and activation problems in amnesics.