There has been considerable debate about the extent to which the more "abstract" aspects of procedural task memory is spared in amnesiacs. In a classic "Tower of Hanoi" task that supposedly showed amnesiacs could improve over time, considerable coaching was necessary every daily trial just to get over the severe "declarative" deficits. With this much coaching, it is more difficult to ascertain exactly what was spared, and what type of memory was being tested.
It may be that Tetris is too darn difficult a game to be learned by whatever "simple" procedural systems are spared. Alternatively, it could be the "conditional" nature of the decisions that must be made in manipulating blocks.
Slashdot Mirror
There has been considerable debate about the extent to which the more "abstract" aspects of procedural task memory is spared in amnesiacs. In a classic "Tower of Hanoi" task that supposedly showed amnesiacs could improve over time, considerable coaching was necessary every daily trial just to get over the severe "declarative" deficits. With this much coaching, it is more difficult to ascertain exactly what was spared, and what type of memory was being tested.
It may be that Tetris is too darn difficult a game to be learned by whatever "simple" procedural systems are spared. Alternatively, it could be the "conditional" nature of the decisions that must be made in manipulating blocks.
see this analysis at radsoft:
benchmarks
Tom