It is of great significance to use soil amendment in combination with brackish water irrigation in rationalizing the exploitation of brackish water, improving saline soil structure and promoting crop growth. Polyacrylamide(PAM), a kind of organic polymer material, is regarded as an effective soil amendment because of its strong water holding capacity. In this paper, ponding infiltration experiments on one-dimension vertical soil columns and absorbing infiltration experiments on horizontal soil columns were carried out for investigation of effect of PAM application rate (0, 0.02%, 0.04% and 0.06%) on water and salt movement in soils with brackish water. Results show that (1) PAM reduced soil infiltration rate and enhanced soil water retention capability in the soil under brackish water infiltration, and the soil amended with 0.04% PAM was the highest in soil water retention capability; (2) PAM application significantly affected the parameters of the Philip and Kostiakov infiltration models and the soil amended with 0.04% PAM was the lowest in soil sorption rate S and empirical coefficient K, but the highest in empirical index β; in the Philip model soil permeability rate fell at first and then rose again with increasing PAM amendment rate; and the infiltration rate in the soil amended with 0.04% PAM was 0.547 cm min^-0.5, which was the lowest; (3) In the soil amended with 0.04% PAM, the soil saturated volumetric water content reached the maximum; and the intake suction h_d increased by 15.30% in the Brooks-Corey model, as compared with the control, which indicates that PAM can enhance soil water-holding capability significantly in soil under brackish water infiltration, minimize soil moisture diffusion rate and make water the most evenly distributed; and (4) PAM amendment significantly improved water-holding capability of the soil and salt leaching efficiency as well. The highest soil holding water capacity and the highest salt leaching rate t was found in the soil amended with 0.04% PAM.