Effect of Executive Function on Event-Based Prospective Memory for Different Forms of Learning Disabilities.

Lili Ji,Lina Wu,Yanan Chen,Junfeng Zhao,Qi Zhao,Huang Gu,Xiaowei Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.528883

Abstract

Students with learning disabilities (LDs) suffer from executive function deficits and impaired prospective memory (PM). Yet the specificity of deficits associated with different types of LDs is still unclear. The object of the present research was to compare subgroups of students with different forms of LDs (<25th percentile) on executive function and PM. Students with a mathematics disability (MD, n = 30), reading disability (RD, n = 27), both (RDMD, n = 27), or neither (typically developing, TD, n = 30) were evaluated on a set of executive functioning tasks (e.g., updating, inhibition, and shifting) and on PM. The results showed that students with MDs and RDMDs suffered from PM deficits. Among the subtypes of LDs, the deficit is different. The students with RDMDs showed a wide range of defects in PM, shifting, inhibition, and updating. In comparison, students with MDs experienced deficits in PM and shifting, while students with RDs experienced a deficit only in updating. For the RD group, the RDMD group and the TD group, updating, and shifting significantly predicted PM. For the MD group, only shifting significantly predicted PM performance, but PM deficits were not completely confined to shifting deficits.

Highlights

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the memory of expected behavior to be performed at an appropriate time or situation in the future
In the current study we focused on disentangling the significance of the three facets of executive control for predicting prospective memory (PM) performance among students with different types of learning disabilities (LDs) who completed an extensive battery of measures of PM and executive functions
The results suggest that executive function is an important predictor of PM in students with LDs

Summary

Introduction

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the memory of expected behavior to be performed at an appropriate time or situation in the future. There are two ways in which PM retrieval occurs: eventbased PM is when an environmental cue signals the appropriate time to perform an intended action, such as remembering to do one’s homework when seeing one’s school bag; a time-based PM, such as remembering to go to a meeting at 16:00. PM plays an important role in people’s daily cognition and daily life activities. Prospective memory tasks are common in daily life, and PM errors may account for more than half of all daily memory problems (Crovitz and Daniel, 1984). The influence of cognitive mechanism on the performance of PM has attracted more and more attention

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion