Little evidence for fast mapping in adults with developmental amnesia

ABSTRACT

Cooper, Greve, and Henson (this issue) conclude that hippocampal-independent learning, as operationalised by ‘fast mapping’ (FM), is unlikely to facilitate learning in adults. We provide evidence from patients with Developmental Amnesia (DA), who acquire language and semantic knowledge despite early hippocampal pathology. We administered an FM paradigm to three patients with DA and controls. Patients showed no benefit of FM compared to explicit encoding. These data support the conclusion that FM is unlikely to facilitate learning in amnesia, regardless of age at onset. Hippocampal-independent learning may be possible in adults with DA, but such learning requires a prolonged consolidation period.

KEYWORDS:

• Fast mapping
• semantic learning
• developmental amnesia

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (programme grant number G03000117/65439) and the Central and East London Research Network (5177). We thank Larry Squire and colleagues for making available their test protocols.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (programme grant number G03000117/65439) and the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. We thank Larry Squire and colleagues for making available their test protocols.