Abstract
Recent research has demonstrated that "self-imagination" - a mnemonic strategy developed by Grilli and Glisky (2010) - enhances episodic memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage more than traditional cognitive strategies, including semantic elaboration and visual imagery. The present study investigated the effect of self-imagination on prospective memory in individuals with neurologically based memory deficits. In two separate sessions, 12 patients with memory impairment took part in a computerised general knowledge test that required them to answer multiple choice questions (i.e., ongoing task) and press the "1" key when a target word appeared in a question (i.e., prospective memory task). Prior to the start of the general knowledge test in each session, participants attempted to encode the prospective memory task with one of two strategies: self-imagination or rote-rehearsal. The findings revealed a "self-imagination effect (SIE) " in prospective memory as self-imagining resulted in better prospective memory performance than rote-rehearsal. These results demonstrate that the mnemonic advantage of self-imagination extends to prospective memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage and suggest that self-imagination has potential in cognitive rehabilitation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 847-859 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Neuropsychological Rehabilitation |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2011 |
Keywords
- Brain damage
- Implementation intentions
- Memory rehabilitation
- Self-referential processing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
- Rehabilitation
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Applied Psychology