Development and Validation of a Battery of Remote Memory Tests

The objective of this study was to develop a battery of easily updated remote memory tests capable of assessing memory for specific time periods in the past. The tests assess memory for teachers, famous political persons, and popular movies and songs. The reliability and validity of each test was examined by administering the battery to a normative sample of 177 university students and 27 former Peace Corps volunteers, the latter group was recruited to obtain a sample who had resided outside the U.S. Reliability coefficients ranged from .73 to .91. Participants performed well, indicating adequate memory for most of the events and information covered on the tests. In support of the tests' validity, participants tended to perform more poorly on items pertaining to events that occurred prior to their birth and during early childhood ( p < .01). Participants who had resided outside the U.S. performed more poorly on the song tests and one of the movie tests (p < .05), but not the politician tests. Also, participants who obtained high scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale tended to perform more poorly than the group mean. Strengths and limitations of the tests are described. Further research is recommended to examine the applicability of the tests for the study of retrograde amnesia secondary to dissociative and neurological disorders and for the assessment of malingering of memory impairment.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Rotella, Susanne Crabtree

Contributors dc:contributor

• Helen Farmer

• Psychology, Psychometrics

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9912359

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80295