Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: Given the importance that prospective memory has on daily functioning, this study evaluated how prospective memory recovers overtime in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cognitive correlates of prospective memory were also examined. Method: Participants were 35 individuals with moderate to severe TBI who were tested acutely (i.e., following emergence from PTA), with 14 TBI participants completing a 6-month to 1-year follow-up, as well as 35 age and education matched controls at baseline and 14 at follow-up. Each participant was administered an ongoing event-based prospective memory task, as well as tests of memory, attention/processing speed, executive functioning, and language. Results: A t-test revealed that the TBI group performed significantly poorer than the control group on the prospective memory task at baseline testing; t(68) = -4.63, p = 0.001. A group by time repeated measures ANOVA for prospective memory revealed a significant main effect of group; F(1,26) = 7.01, p = 0.01 and a significant interaction; F(1,26) = 7.02, p = 0.01, which indicated that TBI participants demonstrated significant improvement in their prospective memory scores over time. Furthermore, for healthy controls, correlational analyses showed a significant relationship between prospective memory and list learning (p = 0.01) at baseline, while for TBI participants, prospective memory was significantly related to list learning (p = 0.01) and delayed recall (p = 0.01). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that although prospective memory is impaired in the acute phase of recovery, this ability does appear to recover over time. Furthermore, correlational analyses revealed that poorer event-based prospective remembering might be linked to impaired spontaneous retrieval processes in individuals with TBI.
Authors: K Robertson, S Kelly, M Schmitter-Edgecombe
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2516014278