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Predicting response of older adults to mnemonic training: who will benefit?
L A McKitrick1, L F Friedman, J O Brooks
1Stanford University School of Medicine, California, USA.
Objectives:
To identify profiles of subjects who respond to mnemonic training for serial word and proper name recall.
Design:
Analysis of J. O. Brooks et al.'s (1999) mnemonic training data using Quality Receiver Operating Characteristic (QROC) and longitudinal regression analyses (LRA).
Setting:
Community.
Participants:
224 community-dwelling adults 55 years of age and older who wished to improve their memory.
Measurements:
Performance on serial word and proper name tests; performance on cognitive ability tests.
Results:
Although the QROC and LRA identified several common predictors (baseline performance, mental rotation ability, and paired associate learning), the QROC identified additional predictors and cognitive ability profiles associated with successful response.
Conclusions:
Similar degrees of response to mnemonic training are associated with heterogeneous cognitive profiles. This finding highlights the fact that participants rely on a variety of abilities to derive benefit from mnemonic training and thus suggests different avenues from which to approach this training.