Story Retelling as a Narrative-Based Linguistic Intervention to Improve Working Memory in Adults with Cognitive Impairment

Cognitive impairment characterized by a reduced ability to process, store, and manipulate linguistic information, particularly verbal working memory, which is essential for discourse comprehension and language production. From an applied linguistics perspective, story retelling is a narrative-based activity involving discourse processing, verbal repetition, and memory updating. However, empirical evidence on its cognitive-linguistic effects in Indonesian individuals with cognitive impairment is still limited. Utilizing quantitative one-group pretest-posttest modes, research investigated how recounting stories affected verbal working memory in Surakarta residents with cognitive impairment. A total of twelve individuals took part in 10 organized story recounting sessions, with an emphasis on understanding and recreating stories orally. The Cognitive-Linguistic Evaluation Form (Form 14-2) was used to test verbal working memory. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used for statistical analysis due to the data's irregular distribution. The study's findings demonstrated that repeating stories is a successful language-based cognitive intervention for verbal working memory, as the average score increased from 4.33 to 7.17 (p < 0.05).