Problems in the clinical assessment of memory

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of clinical memory testing in the light of recent theoretical and experimental advances in the study of human memory. It recounts some of the purposes of memory testing and inadequacies in the tests currently available. A brief review of information processing theory and experimental findings with Korsakoff patients and aged normals provides a number of considerations that must be attended to in developing more adequate memory tests in the future.