Cognitive rehabilitation: how it is and how it might be

This paper suggests there are, at present, four main kinds of cognitive rehabilitation programs for brain injured people. The first attempts to rehabilitate cognitive deficits through drills and exercises. The second uses theoretical models from cognitive psychology to identify deficits in order to remediate them. The third is primarily a patient-driven approach that uses a combination of learning theory, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology to identify and remediate cognitive difficulties. The fourth is the holistic approach that has, as its basic philosophy, a belief that cognitive functions cannot be divorced from emotion, motivation, or other noncognitive functions, and consequently all aspects of functioning should be addressed in rehabilitation programs. Despite some overlap between these approaches, there are major differences. The two main arguments offered in this paper are (1) that the first two approaches do not lead to good clinical rehabilitation practice; and (2) that a synthesis of the second two approaches would result in the best cognitive rehabilitation model.