Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 19;13(4):e0196073. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196073. eCollection 2018.
The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is the most widely used measure of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). The AMT appears to have good psychometric properties, but more research is needed on the influence and applicability of individual cue words in different languages and populations. To date, no studies have evaluated its usefulness as a measure of OMG in Spanish or older populations. This work aims to analyze the applicability of the AMT in young and older Spanish samples. We administered a Spanish version of the AMT to samples of young (N = 520) and older adults (N = 155). We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), item response theory-based analysis (IRT) and differential item functioning (DIF). Results confirm the one-factor structure for the AMT. IRT analysis suggests that both groups find the AMT easy given that they generally perform well, and that it is more precise in individuals who score low on memory specificity. DIF analysis finds three items differ in their functioning depending on age group. This differential functioning of these items affects the overall AMT scores and, thus, they should be excluded from the AMT in studies comparing young and older samples. We discuss the possible implications of the samples and cue words used.
自传记忆测验（AMT）是最广泛用于衡量过度概括自传记忆（OGM）的测试。AMT 似乎具有良好的心理测量特性，但需要更多关于不同语言和人群中个体提示词的影响和适用性的研究。迄今为止，尚无研究评估其在西班牙语或老年人群中作为 OGM 衡量标准的有用性。本研究旨在分析 AMT 在年轻和老年西班牙人群体中的适用性。我们对年轻（N=520）和老年（N=155）样本进行了 AMT 的西班牙语版本测试。我们进行了验证性因素分析（CFA）、基于项目反应理论的分析（IRT）和差异项目功能（DIF）。结果证实了 AMT 的单因素结构。IRT 分析表明，两组人群都认为 AMT 很容易，因为他们的表现通常都很好，而且对于记忆特异性得分较低的个体来说，AMT 更为精确。DIF 分析发现，有三个项目根据年龄组的不同而在功能上有所不同。这些项目的差异功能会影响 AMT 的总分，因此，在比较年轻和老年样本的研究中，应该排除这些项目。我们讨论了样本和提示词的可能影响。
