Memory for short stories
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Immediate and delayed memory for very short stories in adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
IRAS ID
298079
Contact name
Flavia De Luca
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sussex - Research & Enterprise Services
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Individuals with a diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) usually have difficulties with their memory and can also have other problems with their comprehension and reasoning. Although numerous studies have investigated memory in adults with MCI, there have been very few studies investigating whether MCI causes problems in comprehending a situation as it unfolds and in recalling something immediately after it happens.
The proposed study will test comprehension and memory for life-like situations in adults with a diagnosis of MCI and age-matched healthy controls. Participants will be identified through Memory Assessment Service clinics run by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and tested at the University of Sussex or in their own home.We will employ a task that contrasts short stories containing two separate activities (e.g. looking for car keys then making a sandwich) with equally long stories containing just one activity (e.g. looking for car keys). Participants will be asked to listen to these stories and recall them immediately afterwards and after a longer delay (45 minutes later).
Our hypothesis is that individuals with MCI will find the switch between the two activities disruptive and it will impair both their comprehension (measured by immediate recall) and their memory (measured by delayed recall) for the story.
The findings of this study will test a theory of event comprehension (“Event segmentation theory”) and shed light on why individuals with MCI find certain situations disorienting.Summary of Results
This study aimed at testing memory for short stories in 30 individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), age- and education-matched to 30 neurologically healthy controls.
The first hypothesis of this study was that individuals with MCI would show worse immediate recall than controls of short stories describing multiple (vs single) activities, but similar immediate recall to controls of more simple stories describing a single activity. Against this hypothesis, we found that MCI individuals are impaired compared to controls at recalling both types of stories immediately after their presentation.
The second hypothesis of this study was that individuals with MCI would show worse delayed recall than controls of short stories regardless of the type of stories (multiple vs single activity). In line with this hypothesis, we found that MCI individuals are impaired compared to controls at recalling both types of stories an hour after their presentation.
The third hypothesis of this study was that individuals with MCI might show less agreement than controls when asked to mark down changes in the narration of short stories in a subsequent reading task. In line with this hypothesis, we found that MCI individuals show less agreement than controls on where to mark the text in order to detect story changes.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
21/WS/0113
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion