| The Spaced Retrieval (SR) technique (repeated recall of information at expanding intervals of time) was used to teach five nursing home residents new or forgotten information. The purpose of the study was twofold: (1) to determine the effectiveness of SR training in persons with dementia using a single-subject experimental design, and (2) to determine key components that are essential to SR training. Using a stringent criterion of recall at the beginning of three out of five consecutive sessions, results indicated that SR was a minimally effective technique to improve retrieval of target information. Within 20 to 27 training sessions, one participant achieved criterion for three of four pieces of trained information, one participant achieved criterion for one of four pieces of trained information, another participant achieved criterion for one of three pieces of trained information, and two participants did not achieve criterion for any piece of trained target information. Components such as type of information trained (familiar and less familiar to the participant), amount of information recalled, number of sessions, number of retrieval trials, largest retention intervals, maintenance of learned information, and clinical implications of the findings are discussed. |
