title: Subjective Memory Ability and Long-Term Forgetting in Patients Referred for Neuropsychological Assessment.
abstract: It has been suggested that the memory complaints of patients who are not impaired on formal memory tests may reflect accelerated forgetting. We examined this hypothesis by comparing the 1-week delayed recall and recognition test performance of outpatients who were referred for neuropsychological assessment and who had normal memory performance during standard memory assessment with that of a non-patient control group. Both groups performed equally in verbal learning and delayed recall. However, after 1 week, the patients performed worse than controls on both recall and recognition tests. Although subjective memory ability predicted short-term memory function in patients, it did not predict long-term delayed forgetting rates in either the patients or controls. Thus, long-term delayed recall and recognition intervals provided no additional value to explain poor subjective memory ability in the absence of objective memory deficits.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of AmsterdamAmsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, OLVGAmsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sieberen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: van der Werf
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis Nijmegen, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geurts
authors.affiliation: Radboud Expert Centre for Psychology and Medicine, Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center Nijmegen, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maartje M E
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: de Werd
keywords: episodic memory; long-term forgetting; memory complaints; memory consolidation; neuropsychological tests