Errorless learning in the rehabilitation of memory impaired people

TLDR

The study compares errorful and errorless learning methods for teaching new information to neurologically impaired adults with severe memory deficits. Six experiments were conducted, including a group study of amnesic, young, and older controls learning word lists under errorful versus errorless conditions, and five single‑case studies where severely memory‑impaired participants learned everyday‑relevant information such as names, electronic aid programming, orientation items, and general knowledge. Results showed that amnesic participants performed significantly better under errorless learning, and in all single‑case studies errorless learning outperformed errorful learning.

Abstract

Abstract We report six experiments comparing errorful and errorless learning in the teaching of new information to neurologically impaired adults with severe memory problems. The first experiment is a group study in which amnesic subjects, young controls, and older controls were required to learn two lists of words under two conditions. One of these required subjects to generate guesses that produced incorrect responses, and the other prevented guessing—permitting only correct responses. Conditions and lists were counterbalanced across subjects. People with amnesia scored significantly higher under the errorless condition. We further explored the principle of errorless learning in five single case studies in which severely memory impaired people were required to learn information analogous to that needed in everyday life. Tasks included learning names of objects and people, learning how to programme an electronic aid, remembering orientation items, and learning new items of general knowledge. In each case, errorless learning was superior to errorful learning.