Prospective Memory In Patients Research Articles

Patients with Parkinson's disease can successfully remember to execute delayed intentions

The present study investigated prospective memory in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls. In addition, the influence of task importance on participants' performance was examined. Experimental settings required participants to focus either on the prospective or the ongoing task. The three main findings are (1) PD patients performed as well on a prospective memory task as healthy controls when the focus was laid on the prospective memory task, (2) their prospective memory performance was impaired when the ongoing activity was stressed, and (3) differences in working memory capacity were related to these differential effects. Results indicate that PD patients can perform event-based prospective memory tasks to a normal degree if the prospective task component is prioritized. Data also suggest that a reduced working memory capacity plays an important role in this process. Findings are discussed in terms of conceptual, methodological, and clinical implications.

An electronic memory aid to support prospective memory in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: A pilot study

The use of an electronic memory aid (EMA) for patients with mild-to-moderate probable Alzheimer disease is examined in five outpatients aged 58-79 years. The ability to remember to carry out seven tasks at a particular time was evaluated in three experimental conditions: recall without an external memory aid, recall with a written list and recall with support available from an EMA. The use of an EMA significantly improved patients' prospective memory, while the written list and free recall were not useful. Future research that examines the value of using an EMA to help with tasks that are associated with prospective memory with a larger sample of patients within their own home context is suggested.

The Influence of the Stroop Interference Effect on an Event‐based Prospective Memory Task in Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Background: Prospective memory is known as the memory of a plan to carry out an intended action in the future. Although it is associated with many activities in everyday life, to date there have been no well controlled laboratory studies of prospective memory in patients with Alzheimer's dementia (AD). In this study, we investigated the ability of prospective memory in AD subjects using an event‐based prospective memory task in which prospective remembering is triggered by a specific external cue. Methods: Using a personal computer, we conducted event‐based prospective memory tasks embedded in the Stroop task. The concurrent cognitive task such as the Stroop task was called the ongoing task. In the event‐based prospective memory task, subjects were required to react by pressing a mouse key whenever a stimulus during the Stroop task (identification of the name of a color printed in black, of the correct color of a colored circle, or the name of a color printed in an incorrect color) appeared in a larger‐than‐normal size. This target stimulus was designed to appear eight times in each condition, i.e., word condition, color condition, and incorrect‐color condition, during the Stroop task. Results: Normal elderly people showed good event‐based prospective memory performance across all three conditions in the Stroop task. In contrast, AD subjects performed poorly in the event‐based prospective memory task under the incorrect‐color condition in the Stroop task. Conclusion: This study indicated that an ongoing concurrent task with a high attention demand affects the performance of event‐based prospective memory in AD subjects. The performance of event‐based prospective memory in AD subjects was more sensitive to the Stroop interference effect observed in the ongoing task than in normal elderly people. The breakdown of this event‐based prospective memory may reflect the limited attention capacity of AD subjects.