Work overview

Section 03 of 06

Results

Limitations of standard memory assessments in breast cancer survivors

Meenakshie Bradley-Garcia, Annick F.N. Tanguay, Gabriela Haddad, Adelaide Jensen, and Melanie J. Sekeres · 2026

Contents

Section 03 of 06

  1. 01Introduction
  2. 02Materials and methods
  3. 03Results
  4. 04Discussion
  5. 05Limitations
  6. 06Conclusions
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Work overview

Section 3 of 6

Results

Meenakshie Bradley-Garcia, Annick F.N. Tanguay, Gabriela Haddad, Adelaide Jensen, and Melanie J. Sekeres · about 4 minutes

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Taler stories

Verbatim: RM ANOVA revealed a main effect of group (F 1,81=5.88, p=0.02, ηp2=0.06), with BCS recalling fewer verbatim details than NC. No main effect of time (F 1,81=3.48, p=0.06, ηp2=0.04) or time X group interaction (F 1,81=1.85, p=0.17, ηp2=0.02) were observed (Figure 2).

Figure 2:: Bar graph comparing Taler Stories recall performance between breast cancer survivors in grey bars and non-cancer controls in white bars for immediate recall and delayed recall. Error bars show standard error of the mean, with individual participant data points overlaid in light grey. Asterisks indicate statistically significant effects: stars above groups indicate a main effect of group, stars in the middle indicate a group-by-time interaction, and stars between IR and DR indicate a main effect of time.

Figure 2:: Breast cancer survivors and non-cancer controls performance on the Taler Stories. Grey bars represent breast cancer survivors, white bars represent non-cancer controls, error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (SEM), and individual data points are overlaid in light grey. Significant stars at the top represent main effects of group, in the middle represents a significant interaction, and between IR and DR represents a main effect of time. *denotes p<0.05 level and ***denotes p<0.001. Abbreviations: BCS, breast cancer survivor; NC, non-cancer controls; IR, immediate recall for Taler Stories; DR, delayed recall for Taler Stories.

Gist: A main effect of group (F 1,81=5.82, p=0.02, ηp2=0.06) and time (F 1,81=12.31, p<0.001, ηp2=0.13) emerged, with BCS reporting fewer gist details relative to NC, and both groups reporting more gist details during delayed recall compared to immediate recall. No time X group interaction was observed (F 1,81=0.49, p=0.48, ηp2=0.006; Figure 2).

Distortion: A main effect of group (F 1,81=4.08, p=0.04, ηp2=0.04), with BCS reporting fewer distortions relative to NC, and a group X time interaction (F 1,81=4.24, p=0.04, ηp2=0.05) was observed. Post-hoc analyses identified more distortions committed by NC relative to BCS during delayed recall (p=0.008), but similar performance during immediate recall (p=0.34). Additionally, NC committed significantly more distortions over time (p=0.02), whereas BCS showed no time-related difference (p=0.61). No main effect of time (F 1,81=1.75, p=0.18, ηp2=0.02) was observed (Figure 2).

Retrieval success: A main effect of group (F 1,81=5.58, p=0.02, ηp2=0.06) revealed that BCS reported fewer total correct story details compared to NC. No main effect of time (F 1,81=0.48, p=0.49, ηp2=0.006) or time X group interaction (F 1,81=–3,65, p=0.06, ηp2=0.04) were observed (Figure 2).

Verbal paired associates

An independent sample t-test identified comparable VPA memory between groups (t 86=0.41, p=0.34). No group differences were observed within each of the four individual VPA trials (all p’s>0.05; Figure 3A).

Figure 3:: Three bar graphs compare cognitive performance between breast cancer survivors in grey bars and non-cancer controls in white bars, with graph A (left) depicting Verbal Paired Associates scores, graph B (center) depicting Survey of Autobiographical Memory scores, and graph C (right) depicting NASA Task Load Index scores. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean, and individual participant data points are overlaid in light grey.

Figure 3:: Breast cancer survivors and non-cancer controls performance on the cognitive measures. (A) Verbal paired associates (VPA), (B) survey of autobiographical memory (SAM) and (C) national aeronautics and space administration task load index (NASA-TLX). Grey bars represent breast cancer survivors, white bars represent non-cancer controls, error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (SEM), and individual data points are overlaid in light grey. ***denotes p<0.001. Abbreviations: BCS, breast cancer survivor; NC, non-cancer controls; IR, immediate recall for Taler Stories; DR, delayed recall for Taler Stories; NASA-TLX, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index; SAM, Survey of Autobiographical Memory; VPA, Verbal Paired Associates.

Survey of autobiographical memory

BCS rated higher subjective difficulties with their episodic (t 85=−3.25, p<0.001) and semantic (t 85=−3.38, p<0.001) memory abilities compared to NC (Figure 3B).

Cognitive workload

BCS reported more cognitive effort than NC during both the immediate (t 81=4.02, p<0.001) and delayed (t 81=3.52, p<0.001) recall phases of the Taler Stories task (Figure 3C). However, comparable ratings of cognitive effort were reported by both groups for the VPA task (t 86=−0.14, p=0.44; Figure 3C). Correlational analyses revealed higher cognitive workload was associated with poorer task performance on the following: VPA (BCS, r43=−0.72, p=0.005; NC, r41=−0.80, p<0.001; Figure 4A); successful retrieval during Taler Stories immediate recall (BCS, r40=−0.52, p<0.001; NC, r39=−0.51, p=0.001; Figure 4B); successful retrieval during Taler Stories delayed recall (BCS, r40=−0.73, p<0.001; NC, r39=−0.42, p=0.005; Figure 4C).

Figure 4:: Scatter plots depicting the correlations between NASA-TLX ratings and cognitive scores.

Figure 4:: Correlations. (A) NASA-TLX and VPA, (B) NASA-TLX and Taler Stories Successful Retrieval for Immediate Recall, (C) NASA-TLX and Taler Stories Successful Retrieval for Delayed Recall.

Figure description: Scatter plots depicting the correlations between NASA-TLX ratings and cognitive scores on the VPA (top), Taler Stories IT (middle) and Taler Storied (DR) bottom.