Rehabilitation Of Memory Problems Research Articles

How successful is errorless learning in supporting memory for high and low-level knowledge in dementia?

Errorless learning has been shown to be very successful in the rehabilitation of memory problems particularly in patients with severe forms of memory impairment. Much of this research has focused on testing knowledge of specific details studied, ignoring any additional, higher-level knowledge that patients may have acquired during the learning process. Hence, it is pertinent to ask whether errorless learning is equally successful in the acquisition of high and low-level knowledge. In this paper, we present results of several studies comparing the effectiveness of errorless and standard trial-and-error methods in acquisition of high and low-level knowledge in people diagnosed with dementia and non-impaired controls. In Study 1, participants were asked to learn novel face–name–occupation associations; and knowledge across a range of levels, from very general (i.e., high-level) to very specific (i.e., low-level), was examined. For patients with probable Alzheimer's disease and controls there was evidence of increased benefit from errorless training in general, but the technique was most beneficial for patients attempting to retrieve specific detail. Study 2 was conducted to address the problem raised by the failure in Study 1 to manipulate learning condition at our highest knowledge level. This novel manipulation was successful, but neither of the patients received the standard benefit from errorless training. Study 3, involving a small group of dementia patients with mixed diagnoses, was conducted to replicate findings from Study 1. Results from the group analysis confirmed that the benefit obtained from errorless learning increased as a function of knowledge specificity, but again several patients failed to show a consistent effect of learning condition. Implications for use of the errorless technique are discussed. This research was funded by the Northcott Devon Medical Association, Exeter, UK.

Frontal lobe contributions to recognition and recall: Linking basic research with clinical evaluation and remediation

The role of the human frontal lobes in episodic memory is becoming better understood, thanks mainly to focal lesion and neuroimaging studies. Here we review some recent findings from basic research on the frontal lobes in memory encoding, search, and decision-making at retrieval. For each of these processes, researchers have uncovered cases in which frontal memory impairments can be attenuated by various task manipulations. We suggest ways in which these findings may inform clinical evaluation and rehabilitation of memory problems following frontal damage.

Performance of Individuals with Severe Long-Term Traumatic Brain Injury on Time-, Event-, and Activity-Based Prospective Memory Tasks

This study investigated the effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on time-, event-, and activity-based prospective memory using a laboratory paradigm developed in the literature on ageing (Einstein, McDaniel, Richardson, Guynn, & Cunfer, 1995). The participants were 12 individuals with severe long-term TBI and 12 community controls. Participants were asked to answer general-knowledge questions on a computer for two sessions. The time- and event-based tasks were embedded in this filler activity. Participants were also required to carry out activity-based actions at the end of the two sessions. Participants with TBI performed significantly worse than did controls on all three prospective-memory tasks, indicating that TBI affects not only retrospective but also prospective memory. Implications of these results for the assessment and rehabilitation of memory problems in individuals with TBI are discussed.