The autobiographical memory interview: A new assessment of autobiographical and personal semantic memory in amnesic patients

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Abstract
This paper describes a new technique for assessing "autobiographical" and "personal semantic" memory in amnesic patients and healthy controls. It provides evidence of the reliability and validity of the procedure, and reports an age-related temporal gradient in amnesic patients. The results are considered in terms of the severity, the rate of onset, and the duration of the amnesia; and a preliminary analysis is given of the findings in different diagnostic groups. The findings indicate that autobiographical and personal semantic memory show a consistent pattern of impairment, when a comparison is made which controls for the age of the memories and the subject''s own past experience.