ABSTRACT

Spatial memory enables us to find our way about in our environment and to recall the locations of objects in space (Postma & De Haan, 1996; Kessels, Postma, Wijnalda, & De Haan, 2000). Consequently, if this ability is impaired for some reason, everyday life can be seriously affected. For example, it has been demonstrated that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have problems in spatial memory (Adelstein, Kesner, & Strassberg, 1992), which perhaps account for many behavioral difficulties that are seen in these

patients, such as getting lost and wandering around (Henderson, Mack, & Williams, 1989). Moreover, spatial memory is known to decrease as a result of normal aging (Cooney & Arbuckle, 1997). Therefore, psychologists have been trying to develop standardized tests to measure this cognitive construct clinically. Typically, these tests assess memory for object locations, i.e. remembering what is where in our environment. In this paper, all object-location memory tests that are currently available will be summarized briefly first. Next, we will present some clinical and control data of a new object-location memory test, Object Relocation, which has some important advantages over the standard spatial-memory tests.