Prospective and declarative memory problems following moderate and severe traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Primary objective: To examine prospective and declarative memory problems following moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the relationship between prospective memory (PM) and declarative memory and PM and other cognitive functions. Research design: The performance of persons who suffered a TBI (n¼25) was compared with that of a demographically matched control group (n¼25). Methods and procedures: Measures of time- and event-based PM, visual and verbal declarative memory, attention and executive functioning were administered to both groups. Main outcome and results: The group with a TBI performed more poorly on event- and time-based PM, verbal declarative memory, certain aspects of attention and executive functioning. The correlations between the measures of PM, declarative memory and the other cognitive tests were all non-significant. Conclusions: Problems with declarative memory, attention, and executive functioning do not adequately account for poorer PM performance following a TBI, suggesting that PM should also be assessed following TBI.