Virtual and real ATM use performance in patients with acquired brain injury and healthy controls

Abstract

The acquired brain injuries (ABI) have consequences that affect the patients’ autonomy, particularly regarding activities of daily living (ADL). To reduce the impact that these changes will have on the patient’s life, it is important to develop diversified tasks with which individuals can train and improve their impaired abilities and strengthen those that are preserved. Therefore, this study aimed to validate a virtual ATM (Automated Teller Machine) task to be used to train patients with cognitive impairments. The sample consisted of 34 participants with ABI and 66 healthy controls. These participants performed the task either virtually or with a real ATM. Beyond revealing that the type of environment did not influence task performance, the results showed a relationship between the results of cognitive screening measures and the time to complete the task, in which participants with the lowest results had worse performance in the task. Also, the virtual ATM was more sensitive in discriminating the clinical group than the real task.