Remote Memory in Senile Dementia

This study was designed to examine Ribot's hypothesis that the probability of forgetting an event is inversely related to the time since the occurrence of that event. Patients with senile dementia (N = 20; mean age = 67.3) and nor mal controls (N = 24; mean age = 69.4) were given two tests of memory for persons and events that became famous between 1930 and 1975. The results indicate that patients with senile dementia do have significant (p < .001) difficultly recalling information from remote memory. The results do not support Ribot's hypothesis, however. The dementia patients show a relatively consistent recall deficit over the time period examined. There appears to be a trend for poorer recall of material from the 1960s and 1970s, possibly reflecting anterograde learning deficits early in the course of senile dementia.