Working memory performance and quality of life in people with disabilities

Abstract

Working memory is a mental process that allows the human being to store and elaborate in a transitory way the information received by the senses, so it is important to complement this with the quality of life, the latter considered as the welfare present in a person with their achievements, health and healthy eating; this superior function in conjunction with the quality of life can be affected by various factors such as any disability. The purpose of this research is to evaluate executive functioning from the perspective of working memory and quality of life in people with disabilities institutionalized in the city of Ambato. The methodology was quantitative, non-experimental, and cross-sectional with descriptive characteristics in a correlational analysis. It was worked with two assessment instruments, the INECO, which assesses executive functions including working memory, and the INICO for the evaluation of quality of life, with 46 participants between 18 and 60 years of age. The results show a low performance in working memory, as well as a low quality of life in the self-report, from the caregiver's perspective a high quality of life is perceived. It has also been recorded that the working memory variable is not related to quality of life scores. It is concluded that there could be a possible affectation in the prefrontal cortex of the participants, which affects the performance of the quality of life of those evaluated.