ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the assessment of features such as confabulation, retrograde amnesia and preserved learning. Paired-associate learning represents one of the most sensitive measures of memory impairment in both neurological and psychiatric populations, and verbal paired-associate learning has been found to correlate highly with more naturalistic measures of memory impairment. In a few patients with disorientation, features of a confabulatory state may be evident, although confabulation can occur without evidence of any disorientation. Florid confabulation such as reduplicative paramnesia is usually a temporary phenomenon, and it is therefore useful to carry out repeat interviews with the patient at regular intervals during his hospital stay to document any inconsistencies in response. Little attention has been paid to the extent to which such pre-ictal or pre-traumatic amnesia is different from more general retrograde amnesia, and the extent to which the two may be continuous or discontinuous.
