Final answer:
Paul is experiencing anterograde amnesia, which is the loss of the ability to create new memories after a brain trauma, and he retains pre-injury memories.
Step-by-step explanation:
Paul's condition, where he forgets appointments, friends' names, and even things from the past few days after his car crash, can be characterized as anterograde amnesia. This condition typically arises after brain trauma which impacts the ability to remember new information. People with anterograde amnesia are unable to transfer freshly acquired information from short-term to long-term memory, thus struggling to consolidate new memories. Such individuals can recall life events before the injury but cannot form new memories after the injury.
Retrograde amnesia, on the other hand, entails the loss of memories for events that took place before the brain trauma, and is not the correct classification for Paul's symptoms. Retrograde amnesia sufferers struggle to recall episodic memories of their past but can form new memories post-injury.