SELF-INITIATED VERBAL RECALL STRATEGIES FOLLOWING A MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Abstract

Objective: We examined differences in self-initiated verbal recall strategies during the sub-acute and chronic phases of recovery from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). We predicted poorer verbal recall form TBI relative to healthy controls (HC) and greater utilizationof clustering recall strategies during earlier versus later stages of recovery. Method: Adults recovering from mTBI in the sub-acute (n=40), or chronic (n=39) phases, and healthy controls (HC, n=29) completed the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II). Outcome data included serial clustering (SRC), semantic clustering (SMC) and the percentage of words recalled from the beginning (PR), middle (MR) and end (RR) of the list. Results: Although the HC and mTBI groups did not differ total words recalled, PR, MR,or RR, there was greater use of semantic clustering among the sub-acute compared to the HC and chronic mTBI groups, whereas the sub-acute group showed fewer serial clusters than the HC and chronic groups.Serial clustering correlated negatively with total recall in the sub-acute stage. Conclusions: The findings indicate differences in verbal recall strategy utilization and the benefits of such utilization during the early and late stages of mTBI recovery. Emphasizing the use of semantic recall strategies may be particularly helpful for those in the sub-acute stage of recovery.