Measuring and manipulating subjective organization after traumatic brain injury

This study presents a method for assessing subjective organization (SO) after brain injury and techniques for planning cognitive rehabilitation therapy based on the survivor's SO ability. Eighty-seven college students, 50 persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 30 participants with specific learning disability (SLD) learned two overlapping lists of unrelated nouns in which half of the second list were words that the person had learned on the first list. The study assessed whether different patterns of recall for the overlapping words versus the new words on the second list would discriminate persons with brain injury relative to college students and persons with SLD. The results indicated that college students and the SLD participants showed significantly diminished recall of overlapping words on the second list. However, the TBI participants showed significantly improved recall of the overlapping words. The results indicated that this task provides a simple diagnostic assessment of a participant's SO ability. The results also suggested that a TBI survivor's level of SO may moderate the success of prevocational cognitive rehabilitation therapies.