Measuring Memory for Treatment Using Patient Conceptualizations of Clinical Vignettes: A Pilot Psychometric Study in the Context of Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Background Patient memory for psychological treatment contents is a promising transdiagnostic mechanism of change, but there is little consensus concerning its measurement. We conducted a pilot psychometric investigation of the Conceptualization Task, a novel measure of patient memory for treatment. Methods Data were from a trial comparing cognitive therapy-as-usual to cognitive therapy plus the Memory Support Intervention (MSI) for adults with depression ( N = 171). For the Conceptualization Task, patients read clinical vignettes and provided written responses to assess three facets of conceptualization: identifying contributing factors to psychopathology, making intervention recommendations, and providing a rationale for recommendations. Higher scores were given to responses reflecting accurate memory for the theoretical model and change strategies used in treatment. Results The Conceptualization Task showed excellent inter-rater reliability and sensitivity to change during treatment, but only fair test–retest reliability and insufficient internal consistency. Findings supported discriminant validity with measures of education, IQ, and general memory functioning, but not convergent validity with existing measures of patient memory for treatment. Criterion validity analyses showed that some aspects of the Conceptualization Task were associated with therapist use of memory support strategies from the MSI and treatment outcome. However, findings were mixed, effect sizes were small, and some results did not remain statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. Conclusions Further refinement and testing is needed before the Conceptualization Task may be used to assess the patient memory for treatment contents.