An investigation into route learning strategies for people with acquired brain injury

Individuals with acquired brain injury-related memory impairment learned routes around a complex virtual reality town under various. conditions. Errorless learning, a technique used with considerable success in verbal learning tasks after brain injury (e.g. Baddeley & Wilson, 1994), resulted in significantly fewer---, route errors than trial-and-error (or 'errorful') learning, demonstrating the technique's potential for training practical daily living skills. The combining of explicit, naturalistic route learning strategies of cognitive map creation and landmark memorization with errorless learning did -not, within the sample as a whole, further improve its efficacy. However, closer analysis of performance by participants with impaired verbal ability or deficits in executive function indicates that people with such cognitive profiles may derive particular benefit from these additional strategies. Applications and suggestions for further research are discussed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo