A - 151 Assessing the Role of Executive Function in the Memory Performances of Retired National Football League Players.

This article focuses on the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and verbal memory performance in retired National Football League (NFL) players. Fifty-eight participants were divided into intact executive functioning (IEF) and deficit executive functioning (DEF) groups and assessed using the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLT-II), along with the Item Specific Deficit Approach (ISDA) to analyze memory subprocesses. Results showed the IEF group outperformed the DEF group in learning and long-delayed free recall (LDFR), with encoding deficits predicting LDFR problems in the DEF group and consolidation deficits driving LDFR issues in the IEF group. The study also found that executive function correlated with memory encoding, but this association was not significant after controlling for cognitive reserve (CR), suggesting that higher executive function is linked to better memory performance and greater cognitive reserve in retired NFL players.