A Diary Study of Action Slips in Healthy Individuals

Abstract

Memory complaints following minor head injury or whiplash are common and often bear similarity to absentmindedness or action slips (Reason, 1979). We replicated Reason's study by asking 189 healthy volunteers to keep diaries of their action slips for a week. The mean number of slips was 6.4 (SD = 4.9). Perceived stress did not correlate with number of slips but there was a weak positive correlation between action slips and scores on a memory failures questionnaire. Memory diaries may be clinically useful when assessing individuals who worry about cognitive sequelae of minor injuries. Diaries clarify the nature of the complaints and may have therapeutic value by demonstrating that the memory slips are less frequent than estimated by the patients.

Keywords:

• Action slips
• Memory complaints
• Memory diaries

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was previously presented as a poster at the Twenty-Ninth Annual International Neuropsychological Society Conference, February 14–17, 2001, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

A sample diary is available from the first author.

Thanks are due to Audrey J. Mattson, Ph.D. for reading the manuscript and making very helpful suggestions for improvement.

Notes

*Age unknown for one male.