ASSESSMENT OF REMOTE MEMORY BY MEANS OF A GERMAN FAMOUS EVENTS TEST

The final Version of a ''famous events'' test for the assessment of re mote memory is presented. The normative sample comprised 428 healthy s ubjects ranging from 18 to 75 years in age. Subjects were recruited ac cording to census data with respect to age, sex, income, and rural/urb an distribution. Only those subjects who had lived within well defined regions of the northwestern part of Germany throughout their lives we re investigated. Subjects with a history of CNS disorders or drug abus e were excluded. Thus, subjects in the normative sample definitely had access to the public events in question. Results show that the 22 ite ms of a long version of the remote memory test and the 14 items of an abbreviated version clearly distinguish those subjects who were at lea st 21 years of age at the time of the event's actuality from those sub jects who were less than 10 years of age or who had not yet been born at that time. The events relate to a time period extending from 1938 t o 1993. Items are of comparable difficulty and salience. Reliability s cores were adequate. A study of an additional sample of 107 subjects f rom the southern part of Germany showed equivalent results. By contras t, results obtained with 76 residents of the former German Democratic Republic indicated that the test should only be used with people from the former Federal Republic of Germany.