Gist reasoning (abstracting meaning from complex information) was compared between adults with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI, n = 30) at least one year post injury and healthy adults (n = 40). The study also examined the contribution of executive functions (working memory, inhibition, and switching) and memory (immediate recall and memory for facts) to gist reasoning. The correspondence between gist reasoning and daily function was also examined in the TBI group. Results indicated that the TBI group performed significantly lower than the control group on gist reasoning, even after adjusting for executive functions and memory. Executive function composite was positively associated with gist reasoning (p < .001). Additionally, performance on gist reasoning significantly predicted daily function in the TBI group beyond the predictive ability of executive function alone (p = .011). Synthesizing and abstracting meaning(s) from information (i.e., gist reasoning) could provide an informative index into higher order cognition and daily functionality.
Keywords: Abstraction; Adults; Cognition; Cognitive processes; Executive function; Functional outcomes; Gist; Healthy; Reasoning; Traumatic brain injury.