Assessing stroke patients' prospective memory using virtual reality.
There is a dearth of empirical evidence about prospective memory (remembering to perform actions in the future) in stroke patients. A probable reason for this is that it is difficult to perform a realistic and controlled assessment of prospective memory ability in a rehabilitation setting. Virtual reality may provide a solution to this difficulty by allowing prospective memory to be tested in a simulation of a real-life situation whilst retaining a laboratory level of scientific control. This exploratory study assessed the performance of stroke patients and age-matched control participants on event-, time- and activity-based prospective memory retrieval tasks in a personal computer-based virtual environment. Stroke patients were severely impaired at the event- and activity-based tasks compared with age-matched controls, but only marginally impaired at the time-based task. The additional knowledge gained from this form of assessment could direct rehabilitation more effectively towards specific impairments of individual patients.
Brooks
B M
BM
School of Psychology, University of East London, London, UK. b.m.brooks@uel.ac.uk
Rose
F D
FD
Potter
J
J
Jayawardena
S
S
Morling
A
A
D000368:Aged; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D020521:Stroke / Q000523:psychology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D014584:User-Computer Interface