Influence of a memory training program on attention and memory performance of patients with dementia

There are few results of controlled studies about psychological interventions, i.e. training of cognititve functions in dementing illnesses. Most frequently very specific memory strategies are trained, (the effects of) which cannot be generalized to activities of daily living. Thus, a memory training program was developed considering the different cognitive abilities of the participants and which was meant to be generalized to daily tasks. Short-term and long-term memory were trained as well as activities of daily living in 12 lessons for a period of 6 weeks. We can show significant improvements of attention and memory performance in our experimental group in comparison to the control group.