Event-based prospective memory performance during subacute recovery following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury in children: Effects of monetary incentives

There are very few studies investigating remediation of event-based prospective memory (EB-PM) impairments following traumatic brain injury (TBI). To address this, we used 2 levels of motivational enhancement (dollars vs. pennies) to improve EB-PM in children with moderate to severe TBI in the subacute recovery phase. Children with orthopedic injuries (OI; n = 61), moderate (n = 28), or severe (n = 30) TBI were compared. Significant effects included Group × Motivation Condition (F(2, 115) = 3.73, p <.03). The OI (p <.002) and moderate TBI (p <.03) groups performed significantly better under the high- versus low-incentive condition; however, the severe TBI group failed to demonstrate improvement (p =.38). EB-PM performance was better in adolescents compared to younger children (p <.02). These results suggest that EB-PM can be significantly improved in the subacute phase with this level of monetary incentives in children with moderate, but not severe, TBI. Other strategies to improve EB-PM in these children at a similar point in recovery remain to be identified and evaluated.