An Investigation of the Performance of African American College Students on a Measure of Executive Function and Memory
African Americans have a high prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in comparison to European Americans. It is well documented that TBI affects executive function and memory. Executive function (dysexecutive syndrome) encompasses behavioral regulation, planning, and other aspects of reasoning and information processing. Deficits in executive function and memory can dramatically change a person's life after a brain injury. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Function (BADS), and the Ross Information Processing Assessment- second edition (RIPA-2) are tests that determine how individuals with brain injury process information. The WCST and the BADS were used to assess dysexecutive syndrome, while the RIPA-2 was used to test memory. A total of 10 African American college students were administered the BADS, WCST, and one memory subtest of the RIPA-2. The purpose of this study is to determine how typical college students with no prior history of brain injury perform. The normative data from this investigation will be used in the future to compare the performance of individuals who have experienced some type of traumatic brain injury.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Speech and Hearing Science
Research Advisor:
Adele Proctor
Department of Research Advisor:
Speech and Hearing Science
Year of Publication:
2002