Use of the Recognition Memory Test in traumatic brain injury: preliminary findings

The suitability of Warrington's Recognition Memory Test (RMT) for detecting memory impairment after traumatic brain injury was investigated in a pilot study of 36 patients with moderate and severe brain injuries. The patients showed significant memory deficits on both RMT subtests, Words and Faces, with greater impairment on the Faces subtest. No significant gender differences were found. The left hemisphere lesion group obtained the lowest mean score on the Words subtest, and the right hemisphere lesion group had the lowest mean score on the Faces subtest, although these differences did not reach statistical significance. At the 90-94% specificity level the sensitivity of the Faces and Words subtests for the detection of memory impairment after traumatic brain injury was 81% and 63%, respectively. The RMT appears to be a promising instrument for measuring and describing patterns of memory impairment after brain injury.