Quinacrine (QU) is an inhibitor of phospholipase A 2 (PLA 2 ). However, QU has antagonistic properties at the acetylcholine receptor as well. To investigate if PLA 2 activity is of importance in memory formation, QU was tested in a passive avoidance task in the chick. Injecting QU pretraining caused amnestic effects 45 min post-training. When comparing this result with results obtained with other PLA 2 inhibitors, it became apparent that QU is not acting primarily as an inhibitor of PLA 2 . Scopolamine, an acetylcholine receptor antagonist, was tested and produced the same onset of amnesia as QU. I conclude that QU is acting functionally as an antagonist of acetylcholine receptors rather than of PLA 2 .