RS510 Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · 2026/27RS510 Overview
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- 2026/27 academic year
- Postgraduate, Level 5
- Health and Medicine
- 3 credits
- Quizzes, essay and seminar
What this subject asks you to do
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation is a postgraduate subject on helping people whose thinking has been changed by brain injury, stroke, dementia, psychiatric illness or a developmental condition.
- Assessed by Five in-class multiple-choice quizzes with the best three counted, an individual written assignment that reviews the literature and designs a programme, and a group case presentation.
- The skill being tested Connecting a deficit to an assessment and an approach, then naming an outcome that would show real change.
- Hardest step Writing a programme rationale that is specific to Hong Kong rather than one that could describe any city.
- Where to confirm Due dates and submission settings are controlled by the subject pages on Canvas@PolyU.
How RS510 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Continual assessment (in-class quizzes) | 20% | Five MCQ quizzes in class, five questions each, 25 minutes; best three of five counted; one single-sided A4 page of notes allowed |
| Written assignment | 50% | Individual critical literature review and design of a cognitive rehabilitation programme for Hong Kong, 2,500 to 3,000 words, graded by a four-criterion rubric |
| Seminar presentation (group) | 30% | Groups of 4 to 5 present in-depth case management of one case in Week 13: 15 minutes plus 5 minutes of questions |
The subject description form lists continual assessment at 20%, the written assignment at 50% and the seminar presentation at 30%, totalling 100%, and the subject information sheet gives the same weights under the names quizzes, written assignment and group presentation. Only the best three of the five quiz scores count toward the 20%. A hurdle, pass mark or attendance threshold is not stated anywhere in the subject materials, so check Canvas@PolyU for any further condition. One date is published two ways: the subject information sheet gives the written assignment deadline as 18 October 2026 at 23:59, while the submission page shows 14 October by 23:59; confirm the live setting on Canvas@PolyU.
Assessment structure
Segment widths reproduce the published percentage weights and total 100%.
Current RS510 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2026 | Quiz 1 | Week 1, at the start of the in-person class, as listed in the subject schedule. |
| 9 September 2026 | Quiz 2 | Week 2, at the start of the in-person class. |
| 16 September 2026 | Quiz 3 | Week 3, at the start of the in-person class. |
| 7 October 2026 | Quiz 4 | Week 6, at the start of the in-person class. |
| 14 October 2026 | Quiz 5 | Week 7, at the start of the in-person class. |
| 14 or 18 October 2026 | Written assignment | The schedule states 18 October at 23:59; the submission page shows 14 October by 23:59. Check the live setting. |
| 25 November 2026 | Group presentation and slides | Week 13 seminar; the slide submission page shows a deadline of 25 November at 23:59. |
Dates are as published in the subject information sheet and the submission pages on the subject site for this offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What RS510 covers
Nine chapters follow the subject's general topics in order: definitions and brain basis, rehabilitation models, the assessment process and its tools, the disorders of language and action, outcome measurement, and the trial evidence for cognitive stimulation.
Scope of Neuropsychological and Cognitive Rehabilitation
two definitions of rehabilitation · the conditions served · restore or compensate · purposes of a cognitive programme · methods, formats and deficitsTwo definitions, one field
The subject opens by placing a narrow definition inside a wide one.
- Narrow and wide definitions of rehabilitation after brain injury
- Conditions that bring cognitive problems to a rehabilitation service
- Restoring a function versus compensating for it
- Four stated purposes of a cognitive intervention programme
- Methods, formats and frequency of programmes
- Deficit areas from orientation to functional communication
Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making
hemispheric specialisation · dorsal and ventral attention networks · Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control · memory systems and amnesia · decision stages · neuroplasticityFrom hemispheres to networks
The chapter starts with the classic table of left and right hemisphere roles in language, construction, calculation and memory, then follows the lecture's move from localisation to interacting networks.
Attention, memory and decisions
Attention is taught through the dorsal and ventral networks and through Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control systems.
- Left and right hemisphere roles row by row
- Dorsal and ventral attention networks
- Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control
- Explicit and implicit memory and their structures
- Short-term, working, long-term and prospective memory
- Retrograde and anterograde amnesia
Models and Approaches in Cognitive Rehabilitation
general stimulation · process-specific principles · adaptive, task-specific and compensatory functional adaptation · the dynamic interactional model · memory rehabilitation routesFour answers to one question
Each showcased approach answers where a programme should aim. General stimulation aims at cognition and social functioning in general, through group activity, reality orientation, reminiscence and multisensory rooms.
- General stimulation: reality orientation, reminiscence and multisensory rooms
- Principles of the process-specific approach
- Adaptive, task-specific and compensatory functional adaptation
- Toglia's individual, task and environment
- Testing the limits as interactional assessment
- Three routes in memory rehabilitation
Purposes and Process of Cognitive Assessment
why cognition is assessed · cognitive versus neuropsychological assessment · the eight-step assessment process · reliability and ecological validity · practice effects and recovery stageWhat assessment is for
Cognitive assessment identifies the cognitive consequences of brain dysfunction through standardised tests, observation and interviews with the person and caregivers.
- Purposes from profiling to medico-legal decisions
- Cognitive versus neuropsychological assessment
- The eight steps from referral to feedback
- Maximum performance, standardisation and reliability
- Ecological validity and qualitative observation
- Imaging findings that point to domains
Fixed, Flexible and Behavioural Assessment Approaches
fixed batteries · the Boston process approach · behavioural assessment and ABC charts · ecological validity · computer adaptive and virtual reality testingThree ways to assess
A fixed battery gives everyone the same tests, which buys comparability and broad coverage.
- Fixed batteries and their consistency
- The Boston process approach and error analysis
- Matching the approach to the referral question
- Behavioural observation and ABC charts
- Self-report questionnaires such as the PRMQ
- Ecological validity in standardised tests
Cognitive Domains and Standardised Assessment Batteries
screening with MoCA, HKBCT and NCSE · when to assess a domain further · task analysis · TEA, RBMT-3, BADS, FOME · executive and perceptual testsScreen, then go deeper
The lecture's six domains are attention, memory, executive function, visuospatial and constructional skill, language and motor skills.
- Six cognitive domains
- Screening with MoCA, HKBCT and NCSE
- Four triggers for further domain assessment
- Education effects on screening scores
- Bedside checks and standardised tests by domain
- Current performance and task analysis
Aphasia, Apraxia and Disorders of Skilled Movement
aphasia types by fluency, comprehension and repetition · paraphasia and circumlocution · motor impersistence and extinction · perseveration · ideomotor, ideational and limb-kinetic apraxiaClassifying aphasia
The practical session classifies aphasia by fluency, then comprehension, then repetition, with a typical lesion for each type.
- Aphasia types by fluency, comprehension and repetition
- Lesion sites inside and outside the perisylvian zone
- Phonemic, semantic and neologistic paraphasia
- Semantic and empty circumlocution
- Praxic and intentional motor programmes
- Motor impersistence and motor extinction
Performance Factors and Goal Attainment Scaling
factors that distort test performance · impairment scores versus functional outcomes · advantages and limits of GAS · the eight implementation steps · building a five-level scaleWhat moves a score
The practical session lists factors that affect cognitive performance: mood, medication, concentration, comprehension, motivation including possible secondary gain, physical problems, intoxication, psychiatric and pre-existing neurological conditions, testing outside the first language, cultural bias and prior familiarity with the test.
- Person, history and test factors that affect performance
- Secondary gain and consistency of effort
- Impairment scores versus functional outcomes
- Advantages and disadvantages of goal attainment scaling
- The eight steps for implementing a scale
- SMART goals and scoring from minus two to plus two
Cognitive Stimulation, Training and Rehabilitation Evidence
stimulation, training and rehabilitation defined · reality orientation to manualised groups · thirty-seven trials of stimulation in dementia · frequency and severity subgroups · proposed mechanismsThree families
The set review gives agreed definitions. Cognitive stimulation is activity and discussion, usually in a group, for general cognitive and social functioning.
- Agreed definitions of stimulation, training and rehabilitation
- Focus, format, objective and content compared
- Reality orientation and its criticism
- Trial numbers, settings and quality
- Effect sizes for cognition, quality of life and communication
- Frequency and severity subgroups
Its published objectives are to evaluate the main theoretical and method developments in the field, to explore behavioural and ecological assessment and specific treatment strategies, and to build the research interest that programme evaluation rests on.
In practice the subject keeps returning to one chain of reasoning: assess the person, choose an approach that fits the deficit and the setting, and show how you would know the programme worked.
The quizzes test the vocabulary of that chain, the written assignment asks you to build it into a programme for Hong Kong, and the group presentation applies it to one case.
Scope of Neuropsychological and Cognitive Rehabilitation
The opening chapter sets the narrow definition, a therapeutic process that improves how a person processes and uses information, beside the wider one, which adds emotional, behavioural and psychosocial targets after brain injury.
It lists the conditions the field serves and separates restoring a function from compensating for it.
Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making
Hemispheric specialisation gives way to networks: the dorsal and ventral attention systems, Posner's alerting, orienting and executive control, memory split by awareness and by time, the stages of a decision, and neuroplasticity as the reason restoration is worth attempting.
Models and Approaches in Cognitive Rehabilitation
Four approaches are compared by what they aim at: general stimulation, process-specific retraining, functional adaptation of the task or environment, and the dynamic interactional model, which places performance at the meeting point of person, task and setting.
Purposes and Process of Cognitive Assessment
Assessment profiles strengths and weaknesses, supports diagnosis, measures change and informs educational and legal decisions.
The chapter teaches the eight-step process from referral to feedback and the two reasons a better score may not mean a better brain.
Fixed, Flexible and Behavioural Assessment Approaches
Fixed batteries, the Boston process approach and behavioural methods are matched to the questions each answers best, with ecological validity as the axis that separates them.
Cognitive Domains and Standardised Assessment Batteries
Screening comes first, with four stated reasons to assess a domain in depth.
The chapter then works through the named tools, from the HK Brief Cognitive Test to the Behavioural Inattention Test, and their administration times.
Aphasia, Apraxia and Disorders of Skilled Movement
Aphasia is classified by fluency, comprehension and repetition, and the motor disorders the practical session shows on video are separated: impersistence, extinction, two kinds of perseveration and the apraxias.
Performance Factors and Goal Attainment Scaling
Mood, medication, language, culture and effort can all move a score.
Goal attainment scaling measures functional progress instead, and the chapter builds one five-level scale end to end.
Cognitive Stimulation, Training and Rehabilitation Evidence
The set Cochrane review separates three intervention families and reports what thirty-seven trials of cognitive stimulation found for people with dementia, including the session frequency and severity at which gains were larger.
How to use this guide
Read the front matter, then one chapter at a time, and keep a single client group in mind throughout so that the written assignment builds itself as you read.
Each chapter ends with practice items and full answers. The practice chapter plans a complete programme against the four criteria of the assignment rubric, and the closing chapter is a checklist for the submission dates.
Evidence and assessment control
Assessment labels and weights follow the subject description form and the subject information sheet for this offering.
Teaching explanations, worked examples and practice items are independently authored and are not University assessment material; any marks shown on them are an AskSia study allocation. Confirm current dates and submission settings on Canvas@PolyU.
Worked example · free
Judge a stimulation programme against the trial evidence
- 3State what the review found for cognition, with its size and certainty.
- 3Explain why stopping decline cannot be promised.
- 3Change one design feature and give the evidence for it.
Key terms
- Cognitive Rehabilitation
- A therapeutic process that improves a person's capacity to process and use incoming information so they function better in everyday life, using both restorative methods and compensatory techniques.
- Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
- The assessment, treatment and recovery of people with brain injury, aiming to reduce the impact of cognitive, emotional, behavioural and psychosocial impairment on their lives.
- Compensatory Strategy
- A strategy or aid, such as a diary or alarm, that supports a task without changing the impaired process, on the assumption that the person can learn to use it.
- Dynamic Interactional Model
- Toglia's model that explains performance as the interaction of the individual, the task conditions and the environment, with treatment not decided in advance.
- Ecological Validity
- The degree to which a test result reflects how a person actually functions in daily life outside the testing room.
- Practice Effect
- A rise in a repeated test score caused by familiarity with the materials and demands rather than by real change in the underlying skill.
- Boston Process Approach
- A flexible assessment framework that selects tasks for the referral question and draws insight from how a person completes them, including errors, not only from the final score.
- Task Analysis
- Breaking a complex activity into its steps or cognitive demands to find the step at which a person runs into difficulty.
- Goal Attainment Scaling
- An individualised outcome measure that rates progress toward a personal goal on five predefined levels from minus two to plus two.
- Ideomotor Apraxia
- A disorder in which a person cannot perform a gesture on verbal command even though knowledge of the task is intact.
- Motor Perseveration
- A movement that carries on or comes back without an appropriate prompt, either after a task is done or after the task has changed.
- Cognitive Stimulation
- Taking part in varied activities and discussions, typically as a group, to improve cognitive and social functioning in general.
RS510 FAQ
How is this subject assessed?
Three components make up the grade. Continual assessment through in-class quizzes is worth twenty per cent, an individual written assignment fifty per cent and a group seminar presentation thirty per cent. The written assignment is the largest single piece, so its rubric deserves the most planning time, and the quizzes reward steady weekly revision rather than a late push.
What can I bring into the in-class quizzes?
Only one single-sided A4 page of your own reference notes. No other references are allowed, and phones, smartwatches and other devices must be stowed in a bag or left screen-down on the desk. Each quiz has five multiple-choice questions, a twenty-five minute limit and starts when the class begins at 6.30 pm, so punctuality protects your time.
What does the written assignment ask for?
A critical literature review that bears on cognitive rehabilitation services where you work, followed by the design of a cognitive rehabilitation programme or protocol for implementation in Hong Kong. The design should set out its objectives, the group it serves, its theory, how clients are assessed, how it is structured and what equipment it needs.
The length is 2,500 to 3,000 words, and the rubric grades four criteria on five bands.
When is the written assignment due?
Two dates are published. The subject information sheet gives 18 October 2026 at 23:59, while the submission page on the subject site shows a due date of 14 October by 23:59. Treat the earlier date as your working deadline and check the live submission page, because the setting on Canvas is what the system will enforce.
How does the group presentation work?
Groups of four or five choose one case that the programme from the written assignment would serve and present its management in depth: goal setting, treatment principles, activities and an evaluation plan. Each group has at most twenty minutes in Week 13, fifteen to present and five for questions, and one consultation with a member of the teaching team is recommended beforehand.
Which screening test should I choose for older adults in Hong Kong?
Justify the choice against the client group. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment takes under fifteen minutes but its scores are strongly influenced by education, while the HK Brief Cognitive Test was designed for Chinese older people, takes under ten minutes and is less affected by educational level. State which one you use and how you handle education effects.
What is the difference between restoring and compensating?
Restoring means retraining the impaired process itself, as in attention process training. Compensating means supporting the task without changing the process, through strategies, aids or changes to the environment. The subject adopts both, and the lecture draws on neuroplasticity to argue that restoration should be attempted rather than relying on compensation alone.
Do I need to declare use of AI tools?
The subject site has a declaration submission point and provides the University's honour declaration template, which declares the originality of the work and whether and how generative AI was used. Confirm on the subject site which sections this subject requires, and keep a record of any AI use while you work so that the declaration is accurate.
Questions students ask in each RS510 chapter
- Is cognitive rehabilitation the same as neuropsychological rehabilitation?
- Not quite. Cognitive rehabilitation concentrates on improving how a person processes and uses information. Neuropsychological rehabilitation is broader and also takes in emotional, behavioural and psychosocial consequences of brain injury. The subject adopts a comprehensive position that keeps both, so a programme is expected to show a cognitive target and an effect on everyday life. Chapter 01 · Scope of Neuropsychological and Cognitive Rehabilitation
- What is the difference between the dorsal and ventral attention networks?
- The dorsal network, built around the intraparietal sulcus and frontal eye fields, directs attention toward goals you have chosen, such as focusing on a task. The ventral network, around the temporoparietal junction and ventral frontal cortex, responds to unexpected or salient events. They are distinct but influence each other in both directions. Chapter 02 · Neural Basis of Attention, Memory and Decision-Making
- What is the process-specific approach?
- It isolates a specific cognitive process, retrains and remediates it, and uses compensatory strategies for the deficit that remains. Its listed principles are being theoretically motivated, repetition and practice, hierarchically arranged goals, data-driven remediation, reassessment with generalisation probes and outcome measures. Attention Process Training is the typical example. Chapter 03 · Models and Approaches in Cognitive Rehabilitation
- Why do clinicians assess cognition at all?
- Because cognitive impairment affects daily life, learning and rehabilitation, and an assessment turns that into usable information. It profiles strengths and weaknesses for planning, helps diagnosis when imaging cannot show a problem such as poor memory, measures change over time, and informs educational and medico-legal decisions such as compensation and capacity. Chapter 04 · Purposes and Process of Cognitive Assessment
- Why would a fixed battery miss a real difficulty?
- Because it is comprehensive but not tailored. Its measures of a domain such as attention may be general, so a subtle problem like a working memory difficulty can sit inside an average profile. The lecture's own case shows a fixed battery concluding there was no impairment where a process approach later found one. Chapter 05 · Fixed, Flexible and Behavioural Assessment Approaches
- When should a domain be assessed beyond the screening test?
- The lecture gives four triggers: weak screening performance in that domain, a request from the referrer, difficulty reported by the client or caregivers, and a discrepancy between real-world functioning and the screening result. Any one is enough, and naming it in the report shows why the extra testing was needed. Chapter 06 · Cognitive Domains and Standardised Assessment Batteries
- How do you tell Broca's aphasia from transcortical motor aphasia?
- Test repetition. Both are non-fluent with good comprehension, but Broca's aphasia impairs repetition because its lesion in the left inferior frontal gyrus lies inside the perisylvian language zone, while transcortical motor aphasia preserves repetition because its lesion lies anterior or superior to Broca's area. Chapter 07 · Aphasia, Apraxia and Disorders of Skilled Movement
- Why are cognitive test scores not enough to evaluate a programme?
- They measure impairment in a domain. A programme that teaches a compensatory strategy may improve a person's daily task performance without changing that impairment, so the score stays flat while life improves. The practical session presents goal attainment scaling as the measure of actual performance in functional tasks. Chapter 08 · Performance Factors and Goal Attainment Scaling
- What is the difference between cognitive stimulation and cognitive rehabilitation?
- Stimulation is broad and usually group based: activities and discussions aimed at general cognitive and social functioning. Rehabilitation is individual: therapist, person and family pursue goals that matter to the person in everyday life, building on strengths and compensating for impairments rather than aiming at test scores. Chapter 09 · Cognitive Stimulation, Training and Rehabilitation Evidence
How to prepare for the assessments
Choose one client group in the first week, for example older adults with mild dementia at a day centre or adults returning to work after a stroke, and test every chapter against it. After the models chapter, decide which approach suits that group. After the assessment chapters, choose a screening test and one domain battery and write a sentence on why each fits.
After the outcomes chapter, draft a five-level goal attainment scale for one member. By the time the evidence chapter arrives you will be reading the Cochrane review for a programme you have already sketched, which is exactly how the written assignment and the presentation are graded.
For the quizzes, keep a one-page list of paired distinctions, such as dorsal and ventral attention, explicit and implicit memory, fixed and flexible batteries, and ideomotor and ideational apraxia, and revise it before each class.
