January/February 1992- The Journal of Cognitive Rehabilitation 34 Predicting Post Traumatic Amnesia Patients' Performance on Specific Cognitive Tasks

The head injured (HI) population demonstrates a wide variety of impairment from person to person. Within single individuals the nature and severity of the injury can change rapidly as healing progresses. These complex cognitive, emotional, language and physical deficits often present cognitive rehab team members with diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment challenges (Hagen, 1981; Rollin, 1987). A common symptom resulting from head injury is post traumatic amnesia (PTA), a mental disturbance pattern characterized by disorientation, impaired attention, memory failure for day-to-day events, illusions, and misidentification of family, friends, and medical staff (Brooks, 1984). While PTA may vary from hour to hour and day to day, it