Quantitative and qualitative aspects of memory performance after minor head injury.

Neuropsychological investigation of minor head injury (MHI) has consistently corroborated patient subjective complaints of memory loss. An experimental group of 11 minor head-injured patients and a control group of age-matched normal volunteers were compared on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and on the Rey-Osterreith complex figure. Minor head-injured subjects were found to be impaired on measures of short-term and delayed free recall as well as on measures of organizational-semantic strategy in the retrieval phase. These findings are consistent with subjective reports from the patients and may in part explain reduced psychosocial and vocational adaptation following minor head injury.