Assessment of long-term memory in brain-damaged patients

A standardized questionnaire that tested the ability to recognize the names of TV programs broadcast for a single year was found to provide an efficient method of examining long-term memory in patients with brain damage of diverse common etiologies. Ss were 28 brain-damaged patients (mean age 32.14 yrs, mean education 11.59 yrs) and 28 controls matched for age and education. Contrary to the widely accepted view that remote memory is relatively invulnerable to disruption caused by cerebral disease, recognition memory was least efficient for titles of older programs in both brain-damaged and control groups. The relative degree of deficit in patients with brain lesions proved to be minimal for the most recently aired programs as compared with more remote information. Findings are discussed with respect to studies of markedly amnesic patients. Methodological problems involved in the assessment of remote memory are also considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).