Acquisition of an instrumental activity of daily living in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome: A comparison of trial and error and errorless learning

Abstract

Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome show devastating amnesia and executive deficits. Consequently, the ability to perform instrumental activities such as making coffee is frequently diminished. It is currently unknown whether patients with Korsakoff's syndrome are able to (re)learn instrumental activities. A good candidate for an effective teaching technique in Korsakoff's syndrome is errorless learning as it is based on intact implicit memory functioning. Therefore, the aim of the current study was two-fold: to investigate whether patients with Korsakoff's syndrome are able to (re)learn instrumental activities, and to compare the effectiveness of errorless learning with trial and error learning in the acquisition and maintenance of an instrumental activity, namely using a washing machine to do the laundry. Whereas initial learning performance in the errorless learning condition was superior, both intervention techniques resulted in similar improvement over eight learning sessions. Moreover, performance in a different spatial layout showed a comparable improvement. Notably, in follow-up sessions starting after four weeks without practice, performance was still elevated in the errorless learning condition, but not in the trial and error condition. The current study demonstrates that (re)learning and maintenance of an instrumental activity is possible in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome.

Route learning in Korsakoff's syndrome: Residual acquisition of spatial memory despite profound amnesia

“…The study did not involve a healthy control group. Moreover, a recent study suggested that errorless learning could in fact be beneficial for skill learning in KS, dependent on the task at hand (Oudman et al, 2013).…”

Neurocognitive, psychosocial and functional status of individuals with alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) on admission to specialist residential care

“…To date, there has been very limited research concerning the psychosocial and everyday functioning of people with ARBD. Moreover, as recent studies have used proxy measures to investigate QoL in people with ARBD (Oudman & Zwart, 2012;Oudman et al, 2013), research into individuals' perceived QoL has been absent from the ARBD literature. This study makes a valuable contribution to ARBD research as it provides insight into subjective evaluations of QoL, as well as self-reported mental health status, and the quality of IADL performance.…”

“…Moreover, this is believed to be the first study to use the AMPS within an ARBD context. A recent study by Oudman et al (2013) compared the effect of errorless learning and trial and error learning on IADL task performance in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome during a laundry task. Nevertheless, the assessment procedure used by Oudman et al was unique to the study, precluding comparisons with normative IADL ability.…”

“…For example, the ability to perform instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), such as housework tasks, may be particularly affected due to underlying cognitive impairment (Oudman et al, 2013).…”

A Case of Chronic Wernicke’s Encephalopathy: A Neuropsychological Study

“…**Impaired performance compared to the healthy control norm group (≤6th percentile). ¶ Raw score; § percentile score; ¥ equivalent score (max 4) . a A reference group of 20 patients with KS, with an average age of 57.6 (8.7) years (27) . b A reference group of 16 patients with KS, with an average age of 58.9 (7.1) years (28) . c A reference group of 19 patients with KS, with an average age of 58.8 (8.8) years (29) . d A reference group of 20 patients with KS, with an average age of 59.7 (5.7) years (30) . e A reference group of 30 patients with KS, with an average age of 60.5 (10.0) years (31) .…”