Predicting cognitive performance from awareness measures in individuals with acquired brain injury

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Towson University Graduate Theses and Dissertations

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2017-10-09

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Towson University. Department of Psychology

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Abstract

Anosognosia refers to lack of awareness of cognitive and executive deficits. It is a commonly reported problem after acquired brain injury (ABI) or stroke and often hinders an individual's ability to modify their behavior and to function in social situations or at work. This study concerned the question of whether the level of anosognosia after ABI predicts cognitive performance on standardized neuropsychological tests. It was hypothesized that lack awareness of cognitive deficits would be inversely related to performance on measures of cognitive performance. Archival data consisting of patient and observer ratings were derived from the Cognitive Complaints Survey (CCS), a 36-item survey providing both patient self report and an observer assessment of awareness. The scoring procedure for this test provided two discrepancy scores that assessed: deficit with awareness (DWA) and deficit without awareness (DWoA). The discrepancy scores were correlated with IQ scores measured from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Wechsler Memory Scale, and a measure of finger tapping speed. Results indicated that the DWoA measure did correlate significantly with finger tapping speed and a measure of non verbal working memory. The DWA measure did not correlate with any of the performance measures.