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The effects of behavioural relaxation on cognitive performance in adults with severe intellectual disabilities
Author(s) -
Lindsay W. R.,
Morrison F. M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2788.1996.770770.x
Subject(s) - relaxation (psychology) , psychology , memory span , anxiety , intellectual disability , cognition , learning disability , test (biology) , developmental psychology , reading (process) , audiology , short term memory , clinical psychology , cognitive psychology , working memory , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , paleontology , biology , political science , law
Behavioural relaxation training has been found to be effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety in people with intellectual disability. The present study is designed to assess whether or not these techniques can help individuals in more generalized aspects of their life. Two groups of 10 adults with a severe intellectual disability formed a relaxation group and a control group. The relaxation group were given a course in behavioural relaxation training and the control group were given a quiet reading period for the same amount of time. Each subject was given a digit span test, a test of long‐term memory and an incidental learning test after each session. Results suggest behavioural relaxation training has a beneficial effect on performance on tests of short‐term memory and incidental learning, but no effect upon long‐term memory.