Memory self-awareness and memory self-monitoring following severe closed-head injury

To examine the accuracy of memory self-awareness and memory self-monitoring abilities in participants with severe closed-head injury (CHI).

A performance-prediction paradigm was used to evaluate meta-memory abilities in 31 participants with severe CHI (>1 year post-injury) and 31 controls. To assess memory self-awareness, before completing story recall, visual reproduction and list learning memory tasks, participants predicted the amount of information they would remember for each task. Memory self-monitoring was evaluated by examining participants' ability to increase the accuracy of their predictions following experience with each memory task.

Although participants with CHI exhibited poorer recall than controls, they were equally aware of how differing task demands influence recall. They also successfully modified their predictions following task exposure.

Meta-memory was better preserved than actual memory performance. It may be possible to build on meta-memory skills to help patients with CHI more consistently use strategies that aid memory performance.