The Effects of Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury on Episodic Memory: a Meta-Analysis.

Memory impairment following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is among its most pronounced effects. The present meta-analysis focused only on studies of episodic memory (n = 73) conducted with adult patients with moderate-to-severe TBI. The results indicate that verbal Memory, and more specifically Verbal Recall, is most sensitive to the effects of moderate-to-severe TBI. Furthermore, verbal more than visual memory and recall more than recognition are sensitive to the effects of TBI. These effects are more pronounced in delayed than in immediate testing. Several moderating factors were found: age at testing - the younger the age, the greater the effect size of verbal recall. A greater effect size of delayed story recall was related to an older age of testing and longer time since the injury. The higher the educational level, the smaller is the effect size of visual recall. The clinical implications are discussed.

Analogies solving by individuals with and without intellectual disability: Different cognitive patterns as indicated by eye movements.

Eighteen adults with intellectual disability (ID) and 20 children with typical development (TD) matched for cognitive level, participated in this study. Participants solved perceptual and conceptual analogies (from the Conceptual and Perceptual Analogical Modifiability Test-CPAM) while having their eye movements monitored. As predicted, the overall percent of correct answers was significantly higher for the TD group compared to that of the ID group. Comparison of the eye movement pattern of each group while solving the analogies revealed that in addition to the quantitative difference between the groups, there is a qualitative difference in the process of solving the analogies. The difference in the scanning pattern between the TD and the ID groups is interpreted as a reflection of two different types of strategies, Constructive matching and Response elimination, respectively.