Acquired Brain Injuries & Working Memory: Do Encoding Techniques Enhance a Child*s Memory While Completing a Range of Memory Tasks

The effect of strategy training on working memory inchildren with acquired brain injuries was investigated. Six children between the ages of 8and 14 years completed three pre and postintervention tasks. The children began by completing three memory worksheets, and were thentaught a range of strategies aimed to enhance their working memory recall. This wasfollowed, a few weeks later, with the post intervention task, where the children completed threesimilar worksheets. The children were again asked to report the strategies they used foreach task. The task performances were compared across the two conditions, and thestrategies reported within each condition were also analysed to see if they correlated with any ofthe findings. The results indicated that there was asignificant increase across the two conditions, withthe children scoring higher in their working memorytests in the post intervention task. This finding provides evidence that strategy trainingincreases working memory, supporting much of the previous literature in the field.

Jennifer's interest in memory and brain injury has continuedsince completing her Masters. She is hoping to pursue a career inClinical Neuropsychology.