The methods or type of strategies the person uses to help them remember are probed and rated.
- Probe responses to strategy questions after the task with questions such as “tell me more about that” or “give me an example”. Do not accept vague responses without asking for a specific example, For e.g. if the client states “I used association”, then ask: “Tell me how you associated items” or if the client says “I thought of a restaurant” then ask, “Tell me more about that ? or how did the items relate to a restaurant?
- Record the strategies the person identifies verbatim in the text box. Code responses by referring to the strategy definitions on the screen and selecting the highest strategy level using the drop-down menu (under strategies reported). Although the person may identify multiple strategies, the highest level strategy is selected and is assigned a score.
- Note -If the person does not mention the theme or context, they are asked an additional question related to the context. If the person has spontaneously mentioned use of a context or theme, the context question is skipped.
Strategy Rating: Strategy responses to the after recall strategy questions are rated on a hierarchy from 0-4 according to their effectiveness, with higher ratings reflecting greater effectiveness. For example, strategies that include use of the context or theme, meaningful associations (mentions groups with ≥ 3 items), or elaboration (linking items in a story) are assigned higher ratings, compared to those who only identify partial context, used limited associations (using pairs or 1 small group), repeat items, study location or order of pictures, or picture the item without meaningful associations or groupings. Although most people use a combination of different strategies, only the highest level strategy reported is rated or entered into the "strategies reported" box using the drop-down menu.
The strategy score is automatically calculated by adding the "strategy reported (o-4)" and response to the "context question"(0-3) . If the context question was not asked, because the person spontaneously mentioned use of context, they are automatically assigned a score of 3. Immediate or Delayed strategy ratings range from 0 to 7 with higher scores reflecting greater use of meaningful associations or context. Immediate and delayed recall strategy ratings are added together for the total strategy scores (0-14).
Original studies on the CMT demonstrated that those with lower recall, used less efficient strategies.