An Attempt at Memory Retraining in Severe Amnesia: An Experimental Single-case Study

Experimental, single-case research designs provide a method for investigating the effects of memory retraining in clinical settings. Unfortunately, most previous single-case memory retraining studies have employed very brief interventions and inadequate pretreatment baselines of memory function, and have failed to control for practice effects on outcome measures. In this study, we address these methodological issues and report the attempted memory retraining of a postencephalitis patient with severe amnesia. Using a multiple-baseline, across-behaviours design, memory for word lists, text passages, and geometric figures was assessed over a 66-week period using repeated assessments with newly-developed, parallel-form instruments. The results demonstrated no improvement in word-list recall following a memory retraining intervention specifically designed to improve such performance.