The relationship between three different methods of assessing memory impairment: cognitive tests, questionnaires, and observational rating scales, was assessed in 20 dysmnesic alcoholic in‐patients. The cognitive tests were subdivided into those which measured everyday memory skills and those which were traditional experimental‐laboratory tasks. All three methods were highly intercorrelated and the correlation between practical and experimental cognitive tests was also high. Memory test scores were not as highly correlated with either performance on perceptual‐motor tasks or full‐s