Standardizzazione e taratura italiana di un nuovo test di memoria autobiografica: MA-SElf

The autobiographical memory construct in the life-span is receiving an increasing attention by the scholars; nevertheless there is a lack of psychometric instruments for its assessment. This study presents the development and standardization of a new instrument for assessing, in Italian population, the different dimensions of the autobiographical memory: episodic (both retrospective and future perspective) components as well as semantic components in adult and older persons. The theoretical assumption of this new instrument, called Autobiographical Memory of Self (MA-SElf), is both the “Mental Time Travelling” construct by Tulving (2002) and differentiated accessibility to autobiographical memory construct (Conway, Rubin, 1993). This study involved a normative sample of 347 adults and olders (161 M; 186 F) with a healthy cognitive functioning (MMSE≥24/30) and a chronological age range between 20-90 years (M= 54.63; DS= 20.094), articulated in seven age decades: 20/29 years (N= 49); 30/39 years (N= 50); 40/49 years (N= 49); 50/59 years (N= 49); 60/69 years (N= 48); 70/79 years (N= 50); 80/90 (N= 52). Moreover, the study examined a clinical sample with cognitive diseases (N=20: 6 M e 14 F; between 66-91 years: M= 79.35; DS= 7.576). MA-SElf test showed good psychometric requirements: a medium-high reliability of the all sections (α di Cronbach between .615-.847), a good internal validity (rho between .441-.984), a satisfactory converging validity with the Short story subtest (partialized for age: r=.063-.217) and discriminant sensibility between individuals with healthy and pathological aging. The results showed also significant effects both of age and educational level (collinear each other) on the autobiographical memory scores: such scores showed, respectively, a significant negative trend with increasing age and, reciprocally, a significant positive trend with educational levels. The patterns of the results on autobiographical memory where homogeneous both in episodic and semantic components. Sex did not affect the autobiographical memory ability.