Section: New Results

Using virtual reality for studying everyday-like memory and its cognitive correlates

This work consisted in a pilot-study with a comparison approach between aging and traumatic brain injury (TBI) to investigate everyday object memory patterns using a virtual HOMES test.

• Methods: Sixteen young controls, 15 older adults and 15 TBI patients underwent the HOMES test and traditional tests.

• Results: Older adults and TBI patients exhibited similar HOMES performances: poor recall, a greater recognition benefit, high false recognitions, but intact clustering and proactive interference effects. The age-related differences for HOMES measures were mainly mediated by executive functioning, while the HOMES performances in the TBI group were correlated with memory measures.

• Conclusion: The differential cognitive mediating effects for a similar everyday-like memory pattern have been discussed by highlighting the need for more cautious interpretations of cognitive mechanisms behind similar behavioral patterns in different populations especially in clinical and rehabilitation settings.

• Implication for Rehabilitation:

  • Virtual reality might provide ecological scenarios to assess the multiple processes of everyday memory in elderly people as well as in TBI patients.

  • A similar pattern of Everyday-like memory failures might result from different cognitive origins among different neuropsychological patients.

  • The assessment of specific cognitive origins of Everyday-like memory impairments deserves consideration for drawing up relevant rehabilitative programs that match the specific cognitive needs of patients for performing everyday memory tasks.

This work has been published in the journal "Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology" in November 2014 [14] .