Categorization skills and recall in brain damaged children: a multiple case study.
During development, children become capable of categorically associating stimuli and of using these relationships for memory recall. Brain damage in childhood can interfere with this development. This study investigated categorical association of stimuli and recall in four children with brain damages. The etiology, topography and timing of the lesions were diverse. Tasks included naming and immediate recall of 30 perceptually and semantically related figures, free sorting, delayed recall, and cued recall of the same material. Traditional neuropsychological tests were also employed. Two children with brain damage sustained in middle childhood relied on perceptual rather than on categorical associations in making associations between figures and showed deficits in delayed or cued recall, in contrast to those with perinatal lesions. One child exhibited normal performance in recall despite categorical association deficits. The present results suggest that brain damaged children show deficits in categorization and recall that are not usually identified in traditional neuropsychological tests.
Mello
Claudia Berlim de
CB
Departamento de Psicobiologia, Centro Paulista de Neuropsicologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. cberlim@ib.usp.br
Muszkat
Mauro
M
Xavier
Gilberto Fernando
GF
Bueno
Orlando Francisco Amodeo
OF
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests