MEMORY FUNCTION OF CHILDREN WITH SPINA BlFlDA AND SHUNTED HYDROCEPHALUS

Abstract

A group of 10 children with spinal bifida and shunted hydrocephalus, aged between 7 1/2 and 9 yrs was tested for memory of 2 types of verbal material and 2 types of pictorial material. Their perfomance was compared with a group of children with matched IQ and with a group of average IQ, all matched for age and sex. The parameters investigated were learning ability (immediate and delayed recall, and also long-term recall/recognition) and reacquisition of material learned after a period of 24 h. The hydrocephalic children and the matched IQ group were significantly poorer than the average IQ group on all tasks except of Memory for a Short Story. Comparisons between the hydrocephalic and matched IQ groups showed that the former group was significantly poorer only in a Memory for Words test. This discrepancy in the performance of hydrocephalic children in learning unrelated, as opposed to connected, meaningful verbal material may reflect a deficit in their ability to use appropriate semantic strategies at the level of encoding.