When asked what she did over the weekend, which she cannot actually recall due to a genuine gap in her memory, a patient promptly and confidently describes a detailed outing that never happened, showing no hesitation or awareness that anything is wrong. Before revealing the answer: is this hyperamnesia?
No, this is confabulation rather than hyperamnesia. Here a genuine gap in memory is being unintentionally filled with a false account the patient believes to be true, rather than an existing memory being recalled with unusual vividness and intensity, which is the defining feature of hyperamnesia.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 5, 'Disorders of Memory'.