III. Exam: Immediate Memory
- See Digit Span Test (digit repetition)
- Repeat 3 words
- Name the months backwards
- Interrupted counting
- Patient counts from 1 to 100
- Examiner interrupts at 27 and asks patient to wait 1 minute and then restart counting (at 27)
- Examiner interrupts at 42 and asks patient to wait 3 minutes and then restart counting (at 42)
- Constructional ability
- Copy 2 shapes (e.g. a diamond and a 3 dimensional cube)
- Clock Drawing Test
IV. Exam: Short Term Memory Testing (Recent memory)
- Three word recall at 5 minutes (or Three minute Delay Recall)
- Consider clues and prompts
- Thirty minute Delay Recall and Past Events
- How did you come to the hospital (e.g. car, Ambulance)?
V. Exam: Medium to Long Term Memory Testing (Remote memory)
- Name four presidents in the last 100 years?
- History of forgetting what is expected to be familiar
- Lose things
- Leave food cooking on stove
- Lost in familiar neighborhoods
VI. Interpretation
- Memory Loss or impaired construction ability suggests organic cause
VII. References
- Zum, Swaminathan and Egan in Herbert (2014) EM:Rap 14(7): 11-13
- Tomb (1992) Psychiatry, 4th Ed, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, p. 6-11