Abstract
To explain age deficits found in laboratory-based prospective memory (PM) tasks, it has recently been suggested that the testing situation per se may be more stressful for older adults, thereby impairing their performance. To test this assumption, subjective and physiological stress levels were assessed at several times during the experiment in 33 younger and 29 older adults. In addition, half of participants were randomized in a condition where they completed a relaxation intervention before performing a time-based PM task. Results confirmed the age deficit in laboratory PM. Subjective and physiological stress levels showed no age difference and no detrimental association with PM. The intervention successfully reduced stress levels in both age groups but had no effect on PM or the age deficit. In conclusion, data suggest that age deficits usually observed in laboratory PM may not be due to higher stress levels in the older adults.
Highlights
Prospective memory (PM) is defined as remembering to realize a planned intention at a particular moment in the future while being engaged in an ongoing activity (Brandimonte et al, 1996; Ellis, 1996; Ellis and Kvavilashvili, 2000)
To explain age deficits found in laboratory-based prospective memory (PM) tasks, it has recently been suggested that the testing situation per se may be more stressful for older adults, thereby impairing their performance
The present study aimed to investigate the role of stress levels caused by the testing situation in laboratory PM and for this purpose followed five major goals: (1) to examine whether the age deficit in laboratory PM can be confirmed with present data; (2) to evaluate whether the typical laboratory assessment of PM evokes higher stress levels in older compared to younger adults during the experiment; (3) to test whether stress levels are negatively associated with PM performance
Summary
Prospective memory (PM) is defined as remembering to realize a planned intention at a particular moment in the future while being engaged in an ongoing activity (Brandimonte et al, 1996; Ellis, 1996; Ellis and Kvavilashvili, 2000). There is a conceptual distinction between time- and event-based PM tasks (Einstein and McDaniel, 1996). For the past three decades, developmental psychologists have investigated whether performance on PM tasks declines in older age. In their meta-analytic review, Henry et al (2004) concluded that older adults generally perform worse than younger adults in laboratory PM tasks, which holds for both timebased and event-based tasks (see Kliegel et al, 2008; Ihle et al, 2013, for more recent meta-analyses confirming this pattern)
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