Inaccurate prediction of retrieval in a face matrix learning task after right frontal lobe lesions.

This study partly supports the hypothesis that frontal lobe lesions cause impairment of metamemory. Fifty-nine patients with a focal brain lesion and 21 non-brain-damaged patients memorized a 4 X 4 matrix of 16 faces in 6 consecutive trials and predicted the number of locations of faces they would be able to remember before each retrieval. When age-related impairment of learning was adjusted, the patients with right posterior lesions were inferior to the controls and to the patients with right frontal lesions on the total number of correctly placed faces. The patients with right frontal lesions were less accurate than the patients with right posterior lesions or the controls in the prediction of retrieval. The inaccuracy of retrieval prediction in the face test was associated with that in a word-list learning task.