Table 1.

Association Between Cognitive Functioning and HIV-Preventive Behavior

Capacities Required for HIV Preventive Behavior

Acquire, retain, and use HIV preventive information and behavioral skills

Motivation to engage in HIV preventive behavior

Understand the antecedents and consequences of behavior

Identify high-risk situations

Self-regulation of psychological and physiological states

Problem solving and decision making

Negotiation with partners

Know how to reduce harm in the event of a “slip”

Cognitive Deficits that may Impede HIV Preventive Behavior

Memory Deficits:

Difficulty learning, retaining, and retrieving new information and skills

Difficulty recalling details of high-risk situations

Difficulty remembering treatment recommendations

Attention/Concentration Deficits

Distractibility during information and skill acquisition

Poor listening and communication skills

Decreased ability to shift attention

Attention limited to possibly tangential aspects of the situation

Deficits in Executive Functions

Difficulty initiating action

Difficulty self-correcting, self-regulating

Concreteness and Mental Inflexibility

Decreased ability to appropriately generalize across experiences

Decreased empathy

Difficulty identifying alternative solutions to problems

Deficits in Insight, Reasoning, and Judgment

Poor judgment in high risk situations

Decreased ability to predict consequences of actions

Decreased decision making ability

Decreased ability for sequential concept formation and “logical” reasoning