This study directly compared how well Korsakoff patients can process
spatial and temporal order information in memory under conditions that
included presentation of only a single feature (i.e., temporal or spatial
information), combined spatiotemporal presentation, and combined
spatiotemporal order recall. Korsakoff patients were found to suffer
comparable spatial and temporal order recall deficits. Of interest, recall
of a single feature was the same when only spatial or temporal information
was presented compared to conditions that included combined spatiotemporal
presentation and recall. In contrast, control participants performed worse
when they have to recall both spatial and temporal order compared to when
they have to recall only one of these features. These findings together
indicate that spatial and temporal information are not automatically
integrated. Korsakoff patients have profound problems in coding the
feature at hand. Moreover, their lower recall of both features at the same
time suggests that Korsakoff patients are impaired in binding different
contextual attributes together in memory. (JINS, 2006,
12, 327–336.)