Article

OBJECTIVE: To explore how individual differences affect rehabilitation outcomes
by specifically investigating whether working memory capacity (WMC) can be used
as a cognitive marker to identify who will and will not improve from memory
rehabilitation. DESIGN: Post hoc analysis of a randomized controlled clinical
trial designed to treat learning and memory impairment after traumatic brain
injury (TBI): 2 x 2 between-subjects quasiexperimental design (2 [group:
treatment vs control] x 2 [WMC: high vs low]).
SETTING: Nonprofit medical
rehabilitation research center. PARTICIPANTS: Participants (N=65) with moderate
to severe TBI with pre- and posttreatment data. INTERVENTIONS: The treatment
group completed 10 cognitive rehabilitation sessions in which subjects were
taught a memory strategy focusing on learning to use context and imagery to
remember information. The placebo control group engaged in active therapy
sessions that did not involve learning the memory strategy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
Long-term memory percent retention change scores for an unorganized list of words
from the California Verbal Learning Test-II. RESULTS: Group and WMC interacted
(P=.008, etap(2)=.12). High WMC participants showed a benefit from treatment
compared with low WMC participants. Individual differences in WMC accounted for
45% of the variance in whether participants with TBI in the treatment group
benefited from applying the compensatory treatment strategy to learn unorganized
information. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with higher WMC showed a significantly
greater rehabilitation benefit when applying the compensatory strategy to learn
unorganized information. WMC is a useful cognitive marker for identifying
participants with TBI who respond to memory rehabilitation with the modified
Story Memory Technique.
CI - Copyright (c) 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS