The Efficacy of Prospective Memory Training in Two Adults with Brain Injury

Abstract

Objective: Investigation of prospective memory training in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design: Within subject A-B-A-B study with before-after trial assessment on criterion standard neuropsychological measures and two types of generalization probes. Setting: Subjects received outpatient assessment and training in a private clinic. Patients: Two individuals with TBI were selected from 30 consecutive referrals to an outpatient clinic. Subject selection criteria included age of 20 to 55 years; acquired brain injury greater than 1 year; ability to tell time; no previous participation in cognitive rehabilitation; no previous neurologic or psychiatric disorder, substance abuse history, or learning disability; significant other available to take generalization data. Intervention: Subjects received separate blocks of two types of memory intervention; prospective memory training and retrospective memory drill. Prospective memory training consisted of repetitive administration of assigned actions to be completed at future specified times. Retrospective memory intervention required the subjects to recall their prior actions. Main Outcome Measures: Four outcome measures were used: (1) performance on the prospective memory screening test, (2) performance on criterion standard neuropsychological measures, (3) and 4) probes of everyday prospective memory. Results: Results were consistent across botli subjects and suggested their ability to complete designated tasks at target times improved in both the training and community environments as a function of the prospective memory training. One subject improved from a 1-minute prospective memory span to 5 minutes and the other from 2 minutes to 10 minutes. Conclusions: Preliminary data suggest that prospective memory training can improve an individual's prospective memory span and that this training generalizes to daily life