Can mnemonic deficits explain the problems of patients with prefrontal damage?
Memory does seem to be a likely candidate for explaining the aforementioned problems of frontal patients, particularly as they tend to explain their actions (such as going on a simple errand and being later found on the local golf course) by saying that they had “completely forgotten” what they were previously intending to do. Also, Hcan (1964) has previously identified that frontal patients can have memory problems. However, although such problems might initially strike one as caused by deficits in working memory, this does not necessarily seem to be the case. For instance, Shallice and Burgess (1991) account for problems in the performance of multiple sub-goal tasks by the lack of a “supervisory system” (Shallice, 1982), controlling processes such as goal articulation, plan formulation, and the creation and triggering of markers (a “marker” can be thought of as a sort of message that some future behaviour or event is significant to current goals). Rolls (1998) attributes the problems
