title: A cognitive assessment of highly superior autobiographical memory.
abstract: Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) is characterised as the ability to accurately recall an exceptional number of experiences and their associated dates from events occurring throughout much of one's lifetime. The source of this ability has only begun to be explored. The present study explores whether other enhanced cognitive processes may be critical influences underlying HSAM abilities. We investigated whether enhanced abilities in the domains of verbal fluency, attention/inhibition, executive functioning, mnemonic discrimination, perception, visual working memory, or the processing of and memory for emotional details might contribute critically to HSAM. The results suggest that superior cognitive functioning is an unlikely basis of HSAM, as only modest advantages were found in only a few tests. In addition, we examined HSAM subjects' memory of the testing episodes. Interestingly, HSAM participants recalled details of their own experiences far better than those experiences that the experimenter shared with them. These findings provide additional evidence that HSAM involves, relatively selectively, recollection of personal, autobiographical material.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurobiology and Behavior , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.|b Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Aurora K R
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: LePort
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurobiology and Behavior , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.|b Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Shauna M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurobiology and Behavior , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.|b Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: McGaugh
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurobiology and Behavior , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.|b Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory , University of California , Irvine , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Craig E L
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Stark
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autobiographical memory; cognitive assessment; episodic memory; highly superior autobiographical memory; neuropsychology