Errorless Learning in the Rehabilitation of Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: Ameta-Anslysis

The aim of this study was to conduct the first meta-analysis of the effects of errorless learning (EL) compared to errorful learning (EF) on recall or task performance in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other dementias. A literature search was conducted to identify studies that directly compared the effectiveness of EL and EF methods on learning or task performance in a withinsubjects experimental design with participants who had been clinically diagnosed with MCI or dementia. EL was defined as the method developed by Baddeley and Wilson (1994). It was a requirement that either original data or exact p, t or F values were reported. Individual effect sizes for each study and an overall effect size across studies were calculated. Nine studies were included in the meta-analysis, which yielded 10 data sets from 110 participants. Participant ages ranged from 67-87 years with a mean age across studies of 77 years. Study quality was limited due to small sample sizes and methodological issues. The meta-analysis yielded a summary effect size of 0.65 (CI0.410.89) suggesting clear benefits of errorless over errorful methods. However, effect sizes for individual studies were significant in only 3 cases. A tentative conclusion is that overall EL may be more beneficial than EF for learning or re-learning of information or daily tasks in people with MCI or dementia, but further research with larger samples is needed to confirm this and to indicate the reasons for individual differences in response to these methods.