29 - Memory dysfunction

Summary

Introduction

It seems likely that in the future memory rehabilitation will be quite different from how it is now. There will be considerably more biologically based restitution-oriented intervention options available to the patient and clinician. However, for the present time, the most effective approaches to memory rehabilitation are those that enable people with memory dysfunction to compensate for their impairment. This can be through the use of learning methods that promote more effective acquisition of knowledge or skills, or through the use of memory aids such as diaries, calendars or electronic devices, which function as cognitive prostheses. In this chapter, following a brief introduction to the different forms of memory, recent studies that provide the basis for future developments in biologically based memory rehabilitation will be reviewed, along with examples of compensatory learning methods, strategies and aids. Figure 29.1 provides a summary list of the approaches to rehabilitation reviewed in this chapter.

Forms of memory

It is now well established that memory is not a unitary concept or process, at either a psychological or anatomical level. Several different conceptual divisions have been proposed. These include the division between short-term, or working memory (the mental workspace in which information can be held briefly and manipulated) and long-term memory (the long-term repository of knowledge). Within long-term memory, divisions have been made at the level of stimulus material (verbal versus non-verbal), type of information (context-free, factual or semantic information versus information relating to personal experience or episodic information), and accessibility to conscious recollection (declarative/explicit versus non-declarative/implicit memory).