Performance of children with and without traumatic brain injury on the contextual memory test (CMT)

Deficits in memory are among the most significant and pervasive neuropsychological sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children. This exploratory study investigated the use of the Contextual Memory Test (CMT) to measure aspects of memory and metamemory in children. Performance was scored on (1) immediate and delayed recall as well as recognition, and (2) self-awareness of memory ability. The study also investigated the capacity of the CMT to differentiate between children with and without traumatic brain injury. Thirty children with severe brain injury (8 to 14 years old) were included in the research group. A comparison group of 30 typically developing children were matched for age, gender, educational level, and socio-demographic background. Children with brain injury obtained significantly lower scores than children without brain injury. The self-awareness scores obtained following performance of the CMT by both research and comparison groups were significantly correlated with performance scores. Results of this study provide evidence of the discriminant validity of the CMT for use with children with brain injury.