Encoding Of Verbal Information Research Articles

H - 27 TBI and PTSD in an Indigenous Patient: It's Complicated.

Neuropsychological assessment of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) patients presents challenges due to limited normative data, stigma, possible differential validity of measures, and limited access to healthcare. Additionally, differentiating traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is increasingly important for proper diagnosis and treatment of indigenous patients. This case study describes the use of comprehensive neuropsychological testing across two timepoints to assist with treatment planning. The patient was a 38-year-old Native American male referred by primary care to assist in educational, career, and treatment planning. His history was remarkable for TBI status post craniotomy and craniectomy. The patient completed initial and follow-up comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. Follow-up was completed at 9-months following cranioplasty. On initial evaluation, the patient demonstrated deficits in immediate learning, delayed recall, executive functioning, processing speed, and fine motor abilities consistent with major neurocognitive impairment due to TBI. On follow-up evaluation, the patient demonstrated variable processing speed and executive functioning. Follow-up testing showed improvements in encoding of verbal information and immediate learning of visual information. Modest improvements were noted in processing speed, executive functioning, and fine motor skills. Follow-up testing evidenced declines in immediate learning, spontaneous recall, verbal fluency, and worsening PTSD symptoms. While TBI and PTSD can co-occur, understanding how to differentiate cognitive profiles of each, while considering linguistic, sociocultural, and educational differences, is vital for proper diagnosis and treatment. Adherence to treatments following TBI can promote physical and cognitive improvements, though certain symptoms may worsen due to psychological symptoms, which may present differently across cultures.

Verbal learning and memory in agenesis of the corpus callosum

The role of interhemispheric interactions in the encoding, retention, and retrieval of verbal memory can be clarified by assessing individuals with complete or partial agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC), but who have normal intelligence. This study assessed verbal learning and memory in AgCC using the California Verbal Learning Test—Second Edition (CVLT-II). Twenty-six individuals with AgCC were compared to 24 matched controls on CVLT-II measures, as well as Donders׳ four CVLT-II factors (i.e., Attention Span, Learning Efficiency, Delayed Memory, and Inaccurate Memory). Individuals with AgCC performed significantly below healthy controls on the Delayed Memory factor, confirmed by significant deficits in short and long delayed free recall and cued recall. They also performed less well in original learning. Deficient performance by individuals with AgCC during learning trials, as well as deficits in all forms of delayed memory, suggest that the corpus callosum facilitates interhemispheric elaboration and encoding of verbal information.

Memory for images intense enough to draw an administration's attention: Television and the “war on terror”

In the recent United States-led "war on terror," including ongoing engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, news organizations have been accused of showing a negative view of developments on the ground. In particular, news depictions of casualties have brought accusations of anti-Americanism and aiding and abetting the terrorists' cause. In this study, video footage of war from television news stories was manipulated to investigate the effects of negative compelling images on cognitive resource allocation, physiological arousal, and recognition memory. Results of a within-subjects experiment indicate that negatively valenced depictions of casualties and destruction elicit greater attention and physiological arousal than positive and low-intensity images. Recognition memory for visual information in the graphic negative news condition was highest, whereas audio recognition for this condition was lowest. The results suggest that negative, high-intensity video imagery diverts cognitive resources away from the encoding of verbal information in the newscast, positioning visual images and not the spoken narrative as a primary channel of viewer learning.

Recall of Subject-Performed Tasks, Verbal Tasks, and Cognitive Activities Across the Adult Life Span: Parallel Age-Related Deficits

Motor activity during encoding of verbal information has been suggested to reduce age differences in episodic memory. Here we examined memory for sentences encoded with enactment (SPTs, subject-performed tasks) or without enactment (VTs, verbal tasks) in a population-based sample consisting of 10 groups ranging in age from 35 to 80 years (N = 1000). Memory performance was assessed by immediate free- and category-cued recall. Degree of clustering was measured by the adjusted ratio of clustering score. Recall of cognitive activities served as a complementary measure of memory for performed tasks. Sentence recall showed a gradual decline across age, of about the same magnitude for SPTs and VTs, in both free and cued recall. Clustering in free recall was higher for SPTs than for VTs, but there were no age differences in clustering. A pattern of gradual decline from age 35 was observed also in activity recall, regardless of whether the activities involved motor activity or not. Across the memory measures, differences in education accounted for all of the age-related variance in performance among the younger (35-55 years) but not the older groups (60-80 years), suggesting that genuine aging effects in these measures are more prominent in old age. Together, the results indicate that age differences in episodic memory, in line with most, if not all, types of encoding support, generalize across the performed/non-performed distinction.

The effects of minor closed head injury upon human memory: Further evidence on the role of mental imagery

Abstract Patients with minor closed head injuries have been found to show a specific deficit in the recall of concrete material, which suggests an impairment in the use of mental imagery as a mnemonic code. The first experiment in the present investigation compared the recognition of unfamiliar faces by head-injured and control patients. The second experiment studied the free recall of pictured objects. In neither case did the head-injured patients demonstrate a significant impairment, which was taken to mean that minor closed head injury has a selective effect upon the encoding of verbal information in the form of mental images. The third experiment compared the free recall of lists of concrete and abstract nouns by head-injured and control patients under either standard learning instructions or imagery mnemonic instructions. Under the standard instructions, head-injured patients demonstrated a selective deficit in the recall of concrete material. However, under interactive imagery instructions, both hea...