Laboratory Prospective Memory Tasks Research Articles

Prospective memories in the wild: Predicting memory for intentions in natural environments

Prospective memory, the ability to remember an intention at the appropriate future moment, is often investigated in the laboratory to maximize experimental control. However, demands of laboratory prospective memory tasks only partly map onto everyday demands. Therefore, it is an open question whether factors which predict prospective memory in the laboratory also predict prospective memory in the real world. We combined diary and ecological momentary assessment methods to investigate which factors, that have been repeatedly shown to predict prospective memory performance in laboratory tasks, are related to the fulfillment of everyday intentions. Results showed that substantial portions of variance in real-world prospective memory performance could be explained with the factors found to be significant in laboratory. The most powerful predictors were perceived intention importance, the use of external memory aids, delay interval, and conscientiousness. However, some meaningful laboratory predictors (e.g., working memory) played only a minor role in natural environments and a large portion of the variance in everyday intention fulfillment remained unexplained. The results substantially extend the understanding of conditions and personality variables most conducive to remembering intentions, but they also suggest that additional factors influencing real-world prospective memory remain to be discovered.

Understanding the Neural Basis of Prospective Memory Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to perform a planned action at an intended future time. This study examined the neural correlates of PM using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). This study employed a within-participants design. A laboratory PM task was adapted for use with fNIRS to investigate regions of interest and levels of brain activation during task performance in 32 participants (63% female, Mage = 21.31 years, SDage = 4.62 years). Participants first completed a working memory (WM) task (N-back ongoing task) followed by a WM plus PM task while neural activity was measured using fNIRS. Behavioral results revealed an interference effect for reaction time on the WM task, whereby participants were significantly slower to respond in the WM plus PM task compared to the WM task. Ongoing task accuracies did not differ between the two conditions. fNIRS results revealed a higher level of neural activity in the fronto-polar prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the WM plus PM task compared to the WM Condition. These findings highlight that fNIRS is a suitable tool for studying and understanding the neural basis of PM.

The Sounds of Memory: Extending the Age-Prospective Memory Paradox to Everyday Behavior and Conversations.

Around the turn of the millennium, the "age-prospective memory (PM) paradox" challenged the classical assumption that older adults necessarily evidence a marked decline in PM functioning. As previous investigations highlighted ecological validity to be a potential explanation, the present study sought to extend established approaches by using novel real-world assessment technologies to examine PM unobtrusively in everyday-life conversations. Next to laboratory PM tasks, real-life PM performance of 53 younger adults (19-32 years) and 38 older adults (60-81 years) was assessed from three sources: Over 9 days, participants completed an experimenter-given naturalistic task, a diary-based approach assessing self-assigned intentions, as well as an ambulatory assessment with the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), a device that unobtrusively samples ambient sounds to detect spontaneous speech production related to (lapses in) everyday PM. Older adults showed lower performance in laboratory PM only for the time-based task and performed either equally well as or even better than younger adults in everyday PM. With regard to PM performance as captured in real-life ambient audio data, younger adults talked more frequently about PM than older adults, but no significant difference between younger and older adults was found for speech related to PM errors. Findings confirmed older adults' preserved PM performance in everyday life across different indicators with increasing ecological validity. Furthermore, as a novel method to assess conversational PM in everyday life, the EAR opens new insights about the awareness of PM lapses and the communication of intentions in real life.

The Geneva Space Cruiser: a fully self-administered online tool to assess prospective memory across the adult lifespan

ABSTRACT The current study aimed to examine whether the Geneva Space Cruiser – a new online adaptation of the Cruiser – represents a valid, reliable and useful tool to assess prospective memory (PM) across the adult lifespan via fully self-administered online testing. Therefore, an adult lifespan sample of 252 adults (19–86 years old) performed the Geneva Space Cruiser in the laboratory and online, at home, and also performed a more traditional laboratory PM task. A second sample of 224 young adults (19–35 years old) participated in a test-retest online assessment of the Geneva Space Cruiser. Bayesian analyses showed that the Geneva Space Cruiser yielded similar results when administered in the laboratory versus online, both in terms of data distribution as well as of key outcome measures (i.e., PM performance and monitoring). Results further showed very good test-retest reliability and acceptable construct validity. Finally, the online tool was sensitive for detecting age-differences similar to those typically observed in laboratory studies. Together, our findings suggest that the Geneva Space Cruiser represents a rather valid, moderately to highly reliable, and generally useful tool to assess PM in online testing across wide ranges of the adult lifespan, with certain limitations for the oldest participants and for women.

Are subjective sleepiness and sleep quality related to prospective memory?

Event-based prospective memory (PM) involves carrying out intentions when specific events occur and is ubiquitous in everyday life. It consists of a prospective component (remembering that something must be done) and a retrospective component (remembering what must be done and when). Subjective sleep-related variables may be related to PM performance and an attention-demanding prospective component. In two studies, the relationship of subjective sleepiness and subjective sleep quality with both PM components was investigated with a laboratory PM task and separation of its components via Bayesian multinomial processing tree modeling. In Study 1, neither component of PM was related to naturally occurring subjective sleepiness or sleep quality. In Study 2, sleepiness was experimentally increased by placing some participants in a supine body posture. Testing participants in upright vs. supine posture affected neither PM component. However, body posture moderated the relationship between subjective sleep quality and the prospective component: In supine posture, subjective sleep quality tended to be more positively related to the prospective component. Overall, neither subjective sleepiness nor subjective sleep quality alone was related to PM.

How did I remember to do that? Self-reported strategy use for laboratory prospective memory tasks

ABSTRACTThe role of metacognition in prospective memory (PM) has received relatively little attention. This study combined data from several experiments to identify the strategy repertoire employed during a classic laboratory PM task and to determine whether self-reported strategy was related to performance. Participants (N = 668) completed either a focal or nonfocal PM task embedded in an ongoing lexical decision task. The results indicated that participants reported the same strategy repertoire regardless of PM task focality. Participants who reported using a strategy performed better than those who did not report using one, and this was especially true under nonfocal conditions. Self-reported strategy use was also associated with more cost to the ongoing task when the opportunity to complete the PM task was present. These findings add to what is known about the metacognitive components of PM and underscore the need for additional research in this area.

Prospective Memory: Comparing Self- and Proxy-Reports with Cognitive Modeling of Task Performance

Prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to perform an action in the future and is crucial in everyday life. Self-report questionnaires are sometimes used to assess PM problems. In two studies, we compared self-ratings on the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ, G. Smith, Della Sala, Logie, & Maylor, 2000 ) with actual performance in laboratory PM tasks using Bayesian hierarchical multinomial modeling. In Study 2, we additionally collected parents’ ratings of high-school students via the PRMQ. Results indicate a relationship between parents’ ratings and self-ratings of prospective and retrospective memory. There was, however, no relationship of any of the PRMQ measures with PM performance or model-based estimates of retrospective and prospective components of PM. The findings suggest that questionnaires not be used in lieu of performance measures of PM.

Aging and performance on laboratory and naturalistic prospective memory tasks: The mediating role of executive flexibility and retrospective memory

The current study investigates whether individual differences in retrospective memory and executive flexibility tasks mediate the relation between age and performance on laboratory and naturalistic prospective memory tasks. One hundred and ninety-seven people aged 61 to 95years performed four laboratory prospective memory tasks, two naturalistic prospective memory tasks, an executive flexibility task and a retrospective memory task. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the best measurement model for prospective memory tasks is a unidimensional model. Likewise, a bi-factor model consisting in a general “memory/speed” factor and an uncorrelated specific “executive flexibility” factor is the best measurement model for retrospective memory and executive flexibility tasks. The latent variable mediation analysis conducted in the SEM framework shows that “executive flexibility” mainly operates as a mediator in the negative relationship between age and prospective memory. Additionally the negative effect of age on prospective memory via “executive flexibility” increases significantly with the age of the participants.

Age-prospective memory-paradox: explanatory hypotheses

Prospective memory is a complex cognitive function requiring to remember a planned action. For example, this function is particularly important for elderly people to remember taking medication at the appropriate time. The comparison of the performance of old and young peoples on different prospective memory tasks led to two contradictory results, a configuration that has been dubbed "age-prospective memory-paradox". The first set of results of the age-prospective memory-paradox configuration is in keeping with the effects of aging on cognitive functioning, older peoples generally performing less well than younger peoples on laboratory prospective memory tasks. The second set of results is at odds with the first one, as older peoples generally perform better than younger peoples on naturalistic prospective memory tasks. The aim of the present paper is to expose the main explanatory hypotheses of the age related deficit on laboratory prospective memory tasks in one hand and on the age related benefit on naturalistic prospective memory tasks on the other hand. Concerning laboratory prospective memory tasks, the main hypothesis is that the detrimental effect of age would be principally due to negative influence of age on executive control processes and retrospective memory processes involved in this kind of tasks. With respect to naturalistic prospective memory tasks, a higher motivational level and the fact that older people have more frequently recourse to external memory aids and to compensation strategies could explain the better results of older people.

Evidence for a detrimental relationship between hypertension history, prospective memory, and prefrontal cortex white matter in cognitively normal older adults.

Hypertension affects many older adults and is associated with impaired neural and cognitive functioning. We investigated whether a history of hypertension was associated with impairments to prospective memory, which refers to the ability to remember to perform delayed intentions, such as remembering to take medication. Thirty-two cognitively normal older adult participants with or without a history of hypertension (self-reported) performed two laboratory prospective memory tasks, one that relied more strongly on executive control (nonfocal prospective memory) and one that relied more strongly on spontaneous memory retrieval processes (focal prospective memory). We observed hypertension-related impairments for nonfocal, but not focal, prospective memory. To complement our behavioral approach, we conducted a retrospective analysis of available structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Lower white matter volume estimates in the anterior prefrontal cortex were associated with lower nonfocal prospective memory and with a history of hypertension. A history of hypertension may be associated with worsened executive control and lower prefrontal white matter volume. The translational implication is that individuals who must remember to take antihypertensive medications and to monitor their blood pressure at home may be impaired in the executive control process that helps to support these prospective memory behaviors.

Plasticity of prospective memory through a familiarization intervention in old adults

ABSTRACT Younger adults consistently outperform older adults in laboratory prospective memory tasks. This study examines the effectiveness of an intervention that familiarizes older adults with the sequence of ongoing events to compensate their reduced prospective memory performance. We compared performance and electrophysiological measures of an intervention group (N = 20, 69–83 years) receiving a familiarization intervention to an individually matched control group (N = 20). As ongoing activity a 2-back working memory task was administered. Neural correlates were studied using event related potentials (ERPs) and source localization (standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography). Behavioural data showed faster reaction times in correct prospective trials and fewer prospective false alarms in the familiarization intervention group. ERP analyses displayed differential patterns for the two groups and source localization measures distinctively presented group differences in prospective memory trials with the control group recruiting more resources for a successful prospective memory performance. Together our data support the hypothesis that the familiarity with the sequence of ongoing events increases prospective memory performance and that this might be based on a higher efficiency of attentional monitoring resources and evaluation processes in the intervention group.

Implementation intentions and prospective memory among older adults: An investigation of the role of frontal lobe function

ABSTRACT Prospective memory (PM) among older adults has been shown to be influenced by frontal lobe (FL) function. An implementation intention (e.g., ‘if situation X occurs, I will do Y’) is a mnemonic strategy that may be particularly beneficial for individuals with low-FL function, as it has been suggested that implementation intentions produce heightened accessibility to environmental cues, and automatic triggering of previously formed intentions. The present study investigated the effectiveness of implementation intentions among 32 older adults characterized as possessing high- or low-FL function. Participants were placed into one of two conditions: Read-Only or Implementation Intentions, before being tested on a laboratory prospective memory task. Results indicated that older adults with high-FL composite scores demonstrated better PM than those with low-FL scores, and that those who made implementation intentions outperformed those who simply read task instructions. Of particular interest is the finding that high-FL participants benefited from implementation intentions, suggesting that implementation intentions may improve PM of all older adults regardless of FL function. Theoretical underpinnings of implementation intentions are discussed in the context of FL function.

Implementation intentions and imagery: individual and combined effects on prospective memory among young adults

Prospective memory (PM) has been found to benefit from implementation intentions (i.e., "when I see X, I will do Y"). However, to date, it is unclear whether implementation intentions must incorporate imagery in order to produce a positive effect on PM, or whether the verbal statement alone is sufficient. It is also equivocal whether the use of visual imagery alone improves PM, absent an intentional statement. The present study investigated the individual influences of implementation intentions and imagery, as well as their combined effect, on PM. A total of 64 undergraduates were placed into one of four instructional conditions-read-only, implementation intention, imagery, or combined-and were then tested on a laboratory PM task. The results revealed that participants in the implementation intention, imagery, and combined groups completed significantly more PM tasks than did participants in the read-only group, but they did not differ from one another. Combining implementation intentions and imagery, however, did not improve PM performance over either strategy alone. Additionally, the implementation intention and imagery groups outperformed the read-only group on a secondary ongoing digit detection task. The results of this study suggest that implementation intentions do not require imagery to be effective in improving PM, and that imagery alone has positive effects on PM. Finally, the results of the ongoing digit detection task suggest that the use of implementation intentions and imagery might provide for automatic identification and processing of environmental cues.

Memory Complaints and Prospective Memory Performance across the Lifespan

The frequency of prospective and retrospective memory failures from six age groups was gathered using the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). Objective performance measures were obtained with a laboratory prospective memory task. Findings revealed more prospective than retrospective memory complaints in all age groups except in young children. While overall reported memory failures were similar in the adult groups, fewer failures were reported for the two children groups. This might either be explained by a self-other rater bias or by the PRMQ not being well suited to assess memory failures of children. No correlations of complaints with performance measures were found in either age group except in older children for whom surprisingly more complaints were related to better performance.

The age prospective memory paradox: Young adults may not give their best outside of the lab.

Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in laboratory settings in contrast to age benefits in naturalistic settings. Various factors are assumed to account for this paradox, yet empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In 2 experiments, the present study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory task and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic task on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. For the laboratory task (Experiment 1, n = 40), we used a board game to simulate a week of daily activities and varied features of the prospective memory task (e.g., task regularity). For the naturalistic task (Experiment 2, n = 80), we instructed participants to try to remember to contact the experimenter repeatedly over the course of 1 week. Results from the laboratory prospective memory tasks indicated significant age-related decline for irregular tasks (p = .006) but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic task, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives (F < 1). In conclusion, the present results indicate that the variability of age differences in laboratory prospective memory tasks may be due in part to differences in the features of the prospective memory task. Furthermore, increases in motivation to perform the prospective task seem to help remedy prospective memory deficits in young adults in the naturalistic setting.

Frontal lobe involvement in a task of time-based prospective memory

Time-based prospective memory (PM) has been found to be negatively affected by aging, possibly as a result of declining frontal lobe (FL) function. Despite a clear retrospective component to PM tasks, the medial temporal lobes (MTL) are thought to play only a secondary role in successful task completion. The present study investigated the role of the FLs and MTLs in time-based PM, as well as their involvement in clock monitoring, plan generation, and time estimation, each of which may play a role in the execution of time-based PM tasks. Based upon their scores on composite measures of FL and MTL function, 32 older adults were divided into four groups, and were then tested on a time-based laboratory PM task. Overall age effects were also assessed and each of the four groups was compared to a group of 32 younger adults. High-frontal functioning participants demonstrated better prospective memory than low-frontal functioning participants, and were not distinguishable from younger adults. Older adults with high-MTL scores performed significantly better than those with low-MTL scores, but only if they were also high in FL function. FL function, but not MTL function, predicted patterns of clock monitoring, quality of plans generated to assist in time-based PM performance, and the accuracy of time estimation. Again, on each of these measures the performance of the high-frontal group was equivalent to that of the younger adults. The results of this study suggest that it is not aging per se that disrupts PM performance, but it is instead primarily the diminished frontal function seen in a subset of older adults.

Differential effects of age on prospective and retrospective memory tasks in young, young-old, and old-old adults

Remembering to do something in the future (termed prospective memory) is distinguished from remembering information from the past (retrospective memory). Because prospective memory requires strong self-initiation, Craik (1986) predicted that age decrements should be larger in prospective than retrospective memory tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess Craik's prediction by examining the onset of age decline in two retrospective and three prospective memory tasks in the samples of young (18–30 years), young-old (61–70 years), and old-old (71–80 years) participants recruited from the local community. Results showed that although the magnitude of age effects varied across the laboratory prospective memory tasks, they were smaller than age effects in a simple three-item free recall task. Moreover, while reliable age decrements in both retrospective memory tasks of recognition and free recall were already present in the young-old group, in laboratory tasks of prospective memory they were mostly present in the old-old group only. In addition, older participants were more likely to report a retrospective than prospective memory failure as their most recent memory lapse, while the opposite pattern was present in young participants. Taken together, these findings highlight the theoretical importance of distinguishing effects of ageing on prospective and retrospective memory, and support and extend the results of a recent meta-analysis by Henry, MacLeod, Phillips, and Crawford (2004).

Cognitively impaired older adults exhibit comparable difficulties on naturalistic and laboratory prospective memory tasks

AbstractProspective memory, or remembering future intentions, is critical for independent living for all ages, but especially older adults. Previous laboratory research has found that cognitively impaired older adults may have particular difficulties with prospective memory, but previous studies have not examined whether these difficulties occur in everyday life. In normal ageing, a dissociation between settings has been observed, with older adults selectively impaired in laboratory (but not naturalistic) contexts. Consequently, in the present study 15 cognitively impaired older adults were compared to demographically matched controls on laboratory and naturalistic measures of prospective memory. The results indicated that the cognitively impaired group performed more poorly on both measures, with the magnitude of the deficit comparable across setting. These results indicate that for older adults who present with cognitive impairment prospective memory deficits observed in laboratory settings may be a valid indicator of difficulties experienced executing delayed intentions in everyday life. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Personality predicts prospective memory task performance: An adult lifespan study

Do interindividual differences in prospective memory task performance reflect individual differences in personality and lifestyle? Do the cognitive abilities known to change with age retain their power to predict episodic prospective memory task performance after controlling for personality and lifestyle variables, and do personality and lifestyle variables offer predictive power apart from that provided by cognitive ability measures? To answer these questions, we conducted a study with community-living healthy individuals (n= 141) between 18 and 81 years of age. They completed three different episodic prospective memory tasks--two laboratory tasks and one field task--as well as various measures of personality, lifestyle, and cognitive ability. The results indicated that personality and lifestyle reliably predicted who will succeed and who will fail on all three episodic prospective memory tasks. Conscientiousness predicted performance on two of the prospective memory tasks; socially prescribed perfectionism and neuroticism each predicted performance on one of the prospective memory tasks. Cognitive ability predicted performance on one of the laboratory prospective memory tasks but not on the other two prospective memory tasks. After we controlled for individual differences in personality and lifestyle variables, cognitive ability was no longer able to predict performance on the laboratory prospective memory task. By contrast, controlling for cognitive ability had no influence on the predictive power of the personality and lifestyle variables.

Prospective memory: a neuropsychological study.

To examine the neuropsychology of prospective remembering, older adults were divided preexperimentally into 4 groups on the basis of their scores on 2 composite measures: one assessing frontal lobe function and the other assessing medial temporal lobe function. The groups reflected the factorial combination of high and low functioning for each neuropsychological system, and they were tested on an event-based laboratory prospective memory task. High-functioning frontal participants showed better prospective remembering than low-functioning frontal participants. There was no significant difference in prospective memory performance attributable to medial temporal functioning. The results support the theoretical notion that frontal lobe processes play a key role in prospective remembering. Discussion focuses on the particular components of prospective memory performance that frontal lobes might mediate.