In animals, as in humans, benzodiazepines affect memory, inducing almost exclusively an anterograde amnesia. The characteristics of this amnesic-like effect are reviewed in terms of alterations in acquisition, consolidation, recall and/or forgetting processes. Explanations alternative to a true amnesia, i.e., state-dependent learning, cognitive deficits, attenuation of the emotional weight of the conditioning events are examined. Finally, the interference of these putative amnesic effects with experimental procedures devoted to the study of the anxiolytic activities of benzodiazepines are considered.