| Summary: | This study sought evidence that a subset of people with dementia (PwD) have reliable memory for emotional events in their own lives, and that they differ from PwD whose memory for emotional life events is less reliable or unreliable in respect to their own disease stage, confabulation and neuropsychiatric behaviors, and awareness of their cognitive impairment. A cross-sectional study of 93 people with mild or moderate dementia (aged 55 and older) and a comparison group of 50 older adults was conducted. Memories of recent autobiographical events that had both positive and negative emotional content were elicited during a structured interview, designed for consistency with accepted forensic interviewing techniques. Accurate recollection of these events was independently verified by a non-demented informant, usually a family member. In addition, both members of the dyad were interviewed independently to assess other characteristics of people with dementia (PwD): demographics, depressive symptoms, functional and cognitive abilities, medications, health conditions, behaviors and characteristics of the dyadic relationship. Researchers also assessed PwD for disease stage, awareness of cognitive impairment, and episodic memory. A validated test of emotionally-influenced memory was administered to qualified participants to verify the novel structured interviewing assessment developed for this study. Two researchers conducted the study assessments during home visits. The data file contains 945 cases and 732 variables.
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