Towards a cognitive stimulation program using an errorless learning paradigm in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Léonie Jean¹, Martine Simard¹, Robert van Reekum², Marie-Ève Bergeron¹

¹School of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; ²Department of Psychiatry and Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Canada

Abstract: Considering the high risk for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (A-MCI) individuals to progress towards dementia, it is crucial to study the efficacy of innovative treatment strategies such as cognitive stimulation techniques. The present study is a case report of two individuals presenting with A-MCI who were enrolled in a memory training program. After a broad neuropsychological assessment, the two participants were trained with an errorless (EL) learning paradigm on an individual basis, twice a week, over three weeks. Two follow-up sessions took place one and five weeks after the end of the training. Results showed that the program was well tolerated and feasible, and enhanced daily memory abilities. For the second participant only, a re-evaluation of her cognitive profile was completed 23 months after her first assessment and training. In addition, EL was directly compared with a control condition using an errorful (EF) learning paradigm to teach her new names over two sessions (one session for each condition). Her improvement on the trained material supported the preliminary efficacy of EL compared with EF for learning episodic material. These results are compatible with previous work that has preliminarily demonstrated the efficacy of an EL paradigm in patients with dementia.

Keywords: errorless learning, training, memory, elderly, MCI