The Autoradiographical Memory Test elaborated by Williams and Scott (1988) consists of presenting positive and negative cue words to subjects, and asking them to retrieve specific personal memories in response to each cue in under 60 s. This method was applied to 20 subjects who met the DSM III criteria for Major Depressive Episode, and 20 volunteers paired for age (± 3 years), sex and instructional level. In general, our data confirm the results obtained by Williams and Scott (1988): the number of specific memories is significantly lower in depressive patients than in control subjects, especially in response to positive cues.
