The Effect and Comparison of working Memory Rehabilitation and Cognitive-Metacognitive Strategies on Visual Memory and Memory Span in Elderly

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of working memory rehabilitation and cognitive-paracognitive strategies on visual memory and memory span in the elderly.

The research method of this study was a quasi-experimental in the form of pretest - posttest with control group. The statistical population of this study included all the elderly who lived in Bukan Nursing Home from April to July 2019 (N = 120). Forty-five elderly people (three groups of 15 people) were selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly assigned to three groups: first experimental, second experimental and control group. Kim Karad Visual Memory test and Wechsler Memory Span were performed on groups in pretest. Then working memory rehabilitation and cognitive-metacognitive strategies were performed. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance test (MANCOVA) according to its assumptions.

The findings showed that cognitive-metacognitive rehabilitation and working memory rehabilitation had a positive and significant effect on different types of memory. (p <0.001). Also the results of Bonferroni test for comparing the means showed that working memory rehabilitation had more effect on dependent variables than cognitive-metacognitive rehabilitation (p <0.001).

The results showed that working memory rehabilitation and cognitive-metacognitive strategies had a positive and significant effect on the visual memory and memory span of the elderly and improved their memory abilities.