Article

The current study aimed to evaluate the sensitivity, convergent validity and
ecological validity of a newly developed virtual reality prospective memory (PM)
task (i.e., the Virtual Reality Shopping Task; VRST) for use with individuals
with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty individuals with severe TBI and 24
uninjured adults matched on age, gender and education level were administered the
VRST, a lexical decision PM task (LDPMT), an index of task-friendliness and a
cognitive assessment battery. Significant others rated disruptions in the TBI
participants' occupational activities, interpersonal relationships and
independent living skills. The performance of the TBI group was significantly
poorer than that of controls on event-based PM as measured by the LDPMT, and on
time- and event-based PM as measured by the VRST. Performance on the VRST
significantly predicted significant others' ratings of patients' occupational
activities and independent living skills. The VRST was rated as significantly
more reflective of an everyday activity, interesting and was afforded a higher
recommendation than the LDPMT. For the TBI group, event and total PM performance
on the VRST significantly correlated with performance on measures of mental
flexibility and verbal fluency, and total PM performance correlated with verbal
memory. These results provide preliminary but promising evidence of the
sensitivity, as well as the convergent and ecological validity of the VRST.

Langue : ANGLAIS