Friday, April 29
01:30 pm – 01:45 pm
Multi-Interest
Session 17

Shauna Baker, MS, CCC-SLP; Tamiko Azuma, PhD
Level of Instruction: Intermediate   –   Tuquoise I & II

Athletes who participate in contact sports have an increased likelihood of experiencing concussions and post-concussive syndrome (PCS). PCS is often associated with attention and memory impairments, which can detrimentally affect academic performance. Specific cognitive consequences of PCS include reduced processing speed, working memory (WM) deficits, and selective, divided, and sustained attention impairments (e.g., Cicerone and Azulay, 2002). These cognitive deficits may be relatively subtle and less noticeable until the individual must perform tasks with high attentional and WM demands, such those required in college classes. In addition to encoding lecture material and monitoring verbal information for notes, a student must also inhibit irrelevant or distracting information. This study examined verbal memory and attention in college athletes with a self-reported history of concussion. Participants learned information in a lecture format and then completed a memory test. They were also administered WM and attention tasks. Analyses focused on assessing the predictive power of those task scores on memory test performance.

Learner Outcomes:  At the completion of this presentation, participants will be able to identify academic performance issues in student athletes with a history of concussion, describe how working memory relates to note-taking and lecture test performance and list one way in which to provide accommodations to this population.