Self-generation enhances verbal recall in individuals infected with HIV.
Despite the prevalence of HIV-associated episodic memory impairment and its adverse functional impact, there are no empirically validated cognitive rehabilitation strategies for HIV-infected persons. The present study examined the self-generation approach, which is theorized to enhance new learning by elaborating and deepening encoding. Participants included 54 HIV-infected and 46 seronegative individuals, who learned paired word associates in both self-generated and didactic encoding experimental conditions. Results revealed main effects of HIV serostatus and encoding condition, but no interaction. Planned comparisons showed that both groups recalled significantly more words learned in the self-generation condition, and that HIV+ individuals recalled fewer words overall compared to their seronegative counterparts at delayed recall. Importantly, HIV+ participants with clinical memory impairment evidenced similar benefits of self-generation compared to unimpaired HIV+ subjects. Self-generation strategies may improve verbal recall in individuals with HIV infection and may, therefore, be an appropriate and potentially effective cognitive rehabilitation tool in this population.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA 92103, USA.
Erica
E
Weber
Steven Paul
SP
Woods
Emily
E
Kellogg
Igor
I
Grant
Michael R
MR
Basso
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000821:virology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*