Prospective Memory Performance Research Articles

Neural correlates of prospective memory in college students with anxiety.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to create and execute future tasks. It is comprised of two components: cue detection and intention retrieval. PM is essential for performing high-level goals, a proficiency extremely important in college populations. Anxiety is a prevalent psychological experience in college populations that may be associated with impairments in PM. The present study examined PM performance and anxiety in college students, using neurophysiology to measure the mechanism of impairment. After self-reporting anxiety levels, 80 participants completed an event-based, focal PM task while two event-related potentials were recorded from an electroencephalogram: the N300 to assess cue detection, and the prospective positivity to assess intention retrieval. The results demonstrated that, when controlling for age and gender, higher state anxiety was significantly associated with lower PM accuracy (β = -0.27, p = 0.020) and lower prospective positivity amplitude (β = -0.04, p = 0.021). Lower prospective positivity amplitude was significantly associated with lower PM accuracy (β = 0.27, p = 0.015). Higher state anxiety was significantly indirectly associated with lower PM accuracy mediated by lower prospective positivity amplitude (ab = -0.11, p = 0.047). These findings suggest intention retrieval could be a key component in supporting PM for college students with high state anxiety.

Prospective Memory Complaints Are Related to Objective Performance in People With Multiple Sclerosis

ObjectivesTo examine the association between subjective and objective prospective memory (PM) in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). DesignSecondary analysis of a cross-sectional cohort study. SettingCommunity-based comprehensive multiple sclerosis center. ParticipantsPwMS (N=112) who completed a battery that included measures of PM, depression, and fatigue. InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome MeasuresObjective PM was measured with the performance-based Memory for Intentions Test (MIST), whereas subjective PM was assessed with the self-report Perceived Deficits Questionnaire-Prospective Memory (PDQ-PM). ResultsPwMS had low scores on the PDDS (median=2) and HADS-D (median=5.29), with 26.8% scoring 1 standard deviation or lower (≤15th percentile) on the MIST. Objective PM was significantly associated with subjective PM in a multivariate model (β=−0.18, P=.036), which accounted for demographics, physical disability, retrospective memory, and depressive and fatigue severity. Physical disability, depression, and fatigue were also significant contributors to subjective PM. Time-based PM performance emerged as the specific component that was associated with subjective PM. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that among PwMS with relatively mild impairment and symptomatology, their objective PM performance was associated with their self-assessments, even when considering retrospective memory and factors that influence their cognitive perceptions. The results expand upon the subjective-objective cognition discrepancy literature in multiple sclerosis and highlights how the PDQ-PM could be used as a complementary measure to help identify difficulties with PM.

Prospective memory functions in traumatic brain injury: The role of neuropsychological deficits, metamemory and impaired self-awareness.

A large body of evidence suggests that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have significant difficulties with prospective memory (PM), the memory for future intentions. However, the processes underlying this cognitive deficit remain unclear. This study aimed to gather further evidence regarding PM functions in TBI and clarify the role of neuropsychological deficits, metamemory, and mood disorders. We used a laboratory-based clinical measure, the Virtual Week, to examine PM function in 18 patients with TBI and 18 healthy control subjects. Measures of attention, processing speed, executive functions, episodic memory, and self-report questionnaires were also administered. In line with prior literature, our findings indicate that individuals with TBI had a consistent deficit compared to controls across all PM tasks. In previous studies, TBI patients had more severe impairment on time-based tasks; nevertheless, our results show that across all participants event-based tasks were easier to perform compared to time-based only when the retrospective memory demand was high. The patients were not only impaired on the prospective component of PM but also failed to recognise the content of their task (the retrospective component). Interestingly, the TBI group did not report higher levels of everyday memory problems, anxiety and depression compared to the control group. These measures also failed to correlate with PM and recognition memory performance. This study found that besides the neuropsychological deficits, a global impairment in PM functioning is present in individuals with TBI across various task types, tasks low and high in retrospective demands, and event versus time-based.

The impact of subtle contextual information on remembering to complete academic goals.

Remembering to complete goals-termed prospective memory (PM)-is critical for success in everyday life, yet minimal empirical work has been dedicated to examining PM within an educational setting. The main goal of this study was to investigate students' ability to complete numerous future-oriented academic intentions (PM tasks) while simultaneously paying attention to a lecture and to see if working memory (WM) capacity and adding subtle contextual information would support the students' likelihood of completing their PM tasks. Participants took part in a 2-hr session of college course-like activities. Throughout the session, there was occasionally the opportunity to complete one of several naturalistic PM tasks. The following findings are based on the results of our Bayesian models. Providing subtle contextual clues about when PM tasks could be completed was found to likely increase performance. The number of PM intentions to be remembered (i.e., load) produced no discernable effect on ongoing task performance or PM performance. Furthermore, individual differences in WM capacity were likely to be predictive of a near-zero change in PM performance. The current findings hold meaningful implications for educators, wherein providing context, even at a subtle level, can enhance students' ability to remember to complete tasks, without altering their ability to focus on the tasks at hand. Moreover, it appears that asking students to remember to complete multiple, prospective in-class tasks is not likely to hinder task completion or their ability to focus on other ongoing tasks.

Effects of delay and reminders on time-based prospective memory in a naturalistic task

ABSTRACT The current study examined the effect of a delay on naturalistic time-based prospective memory (PM) tasks. Two experiments were performed to compare PM performance on a texting task with delays of 1 to 6 days after an initial session. In the first experiment, half of the participants were asked to repeat their response with the same delay to test whether requiring a second response (i.e., a repeated PM task, such as taking medication at the same time each day) would affect time-based PM performance. In the second experiment, participants were given an implicit or an explicit reminder several hours before their time to respond to examine the effect of type of reminder on this PM task. The results of both experiments showed a significant decline in PM performance between the 1-day and multi-day delays. Repeating responses (Experiment 1) had no effect on accuracy of the PM task, but in Experiment 2, explicit experimenter-initiated reminders significantly increased time-based PM performance compared with implicit reminders. These results are discussed in the context of previous studies that have tested delay effects on time-based PM and current theoretical descriptions of time-based PM.

Associations of computer gaming with incident dementia, cognitive functions, and brain structure: a prospective cohort study and Mendelian randomization analysis

BackgroundComputer gaming has recently been suggested to be associated with benefits for cognition, but its impact on incident dementia remains uncertain. We aimed to investigate the observational associations of playing computer games with incident dementia, cognitive functions, and brain structural measures, and further explore the genetic associations between computer gaming and dementia.MethodsWe included 471,346 White British participants without dementia at baseline based on the UK Biobank, and followed them until November 2022. We estimated the risk of dementia using Cox proportional hazard models, and assessed the changes of cognitive functions and brain structural measures using logistic regression models and linear regression models. Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were performed to examine the association between genetically determined computer gaming and dementia.ResultsHigh frequency of playing computer games was associated with decreased risk of incident dementia (HR, 0.81 [95% CI: 0.69, 0.94]). Individuals with high frequency of playing computer games had better performance in prospective memory (OR, 1.46 [1.26, 1.70]), reaction time (beta, -0.195 [-0.243, -0.147]), fluid intelligence (0.334 [0.286, 0.382]), numeric memory (0.107 [0.047, 0.166]), incorrect pairs matching (-0.253 [-0.302, -0.203]), and high volume of gray matter in hippocampus (0.078 [0.023, 0.134]). Genetically determined high frequency of playing computer games was associated with a low risk of dementia (OR, 0.37 [0.15, 0.91]).ConclusionsComputer gaming was associated with a decreased risk of dementia, favorable cognitive function, and better brain structure, suggesting that computer gaming could modulate cognitive function and may be a promising target for dementia prevention.

Self-reported strategy use and prospective memory: The roles of cue focality and task importance.

Interest in the metacognitive aspects of prospective memory (PM) is growing. Yet, the interplay between participants' metacognitive awareness of PM task demands and features that contribute to successful PM require further attention. To this aim, participants in the current study completed laboratory-based PM tasks of varying difficulty (cue focality: focal, nonfocal-category, or nonfocal-syllable) and reported their strategy use and perceptions of PM task importance. Most participants reported using a strategy regardless of cue focality. However, only under the most challenging condition (i.e., nonfocal-syllable) did participants who reported using a strategy exhibit better PM performance compared to those who did not use a strategy. Additionally, strategy use and cue focality were independently associated with greater costs to ongoing task performance: strategy users exhibited greater slowing relative to individuals who did not use a strategy, and the extent of slowing was greater as the task difficulty increased across cue focality. Finally, perceived task importance appeared to play an important role in the interactive link between cue focality and strategy use on PM performance for the more challenging, nonfocal PM tasks. Specifically, moderation analyses suggested that greater perceived task importance alone may improve the likelihood of PM success for moderately challenging PM tasks (i.e., nonfocal-category), but for the most challenging PM tasks (i.e., nonfocal-syllable), individuals' strategy use was still associated with better PM performance. The present study expands our understanding of metacognition's role in PM performance and has implications for everyday PM performance.

Plasma IL-6 levels and their association with brain health and dementia risk: A population-based cohort study

BackgroundRecent studies have associated immune abnormalities with dementia. IL-6 is a crucial cytokine in inflammatory responses, and recent evidence has linked elevated IL-6 levels to changes in brain structure and cognitive decline. However, the connection between IL-6 levels, cognition, brain volumes, and dementia risk requires exploration in large prospective cohorts. MethodsThis study utilized a longitudinal cohort from the UK Biobank to analyze the correlation between IL-6 expression levels, cognitive performance, and cortical and subcortical brain volumes through linear regression. Additionally, we assessed the association between IL-6 levels and long-term dementia risk using Cox regression analysis. We also used one-sample Mendelian randomization to analyze the impact of genetic predisposition of dementia on elevated IL-6 levels. ResultsA total of 50,864 participants were included in this study, with 1,391 new cases of all-cause dementia identified. Higher plasma IL-6 levels are associated with cortical and subcortical atrophy in regions such as the fusiform, thalamus proper, hippocampus, and larger ventricle volumes. IL-6 levels are negatively associated with cognitive performance in pair matching, numeric memory, prospective memory, and reaction time tests. Furthermore, elevated IL-6 levels are linked to a 23–35 % increased risk of all-cause dementia over an average follow-up period of 13.2 years. The one-sample Mendelian randomization analysis did not show associations between the genetic predisposition of dementia and elevated IL-6 levels. ConclusionsIncreased IL-6 levels are associated with worse cognition, brain atrophy, and a heightened risk of all-cause dementia. Our study highlights the need to focus on the role of peripheral IL-6 levels in managing brain health and dementia risk.

Activity-Based Prospective Memory in Insomniacs.

To investigate the activity-based prospective memory performance in patients with insomnia, divided, on the basis of actigraphic evaluation, into sleep onset, maintenance, mixed and negative misperception insomnia. A total of 153 patients with insomnia (I, 83 females, mean age + SD = 41.37 + 16.19 years) and 121 healthy controls (HC, 78 females, mean age + SD = 36.99 + 14.91 years) wore an actigraph for one week. Insomnia was classified into sleep onset insomnia (SOI), maintenance insomnia (MaI), mixed insomnia (MixI) and negative misperception insomnia (NMI). To study their activity-based prospective memory performance, all the participants were required to push the actigraph event marker button twice, at bedtime (task 1) and at get-up time (task 2). Only patients with maintenance and mixed insomnia had a significantly lower accuracy in the activity-based prospective memory task at get-up time compared with the healthy controls. The results show that maintenance and mixed insomnia involve an impaired activity-based prospective memory performance, while sleep onset and negative misperception insomnia do not seem to be affected. This pattern of results suggests that the fragmentation of sleep may play a role in activity-based prospective memory efficiency at wake-up in the morning.

Practice is the best of all instructors-Effects of enactment encoding and episodic future thinking on prospective memory performance in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to carry out intended actions in the future. The present study investigated the effects of episodic future thinking (EFT) and enactment encoding (EE) on PM performance in autistic adults (ASD). A total of 72 autistic individuals and 70 controls matched for age, gender, and cognitive abilities completed a computerized version of the Dresden breakfast Task, which required participants to prepare breakfast following a set of rules and time restrictions. A two (group: ASD vs. controls) by three (encoding condition: EFT vs. EE vs. standard) between-subjects design was applied. Participants were either instructed to engage in EFT or EE to prepare to the different tasks prior to performing the Dresden breakfast or received standard instructions. Analyses of variance were conducted. Autism-spectrum-disorders (ASD) participants did not differ from control participants in their PM performance, regardless of which strategy they used. Compared to the standard condition, EE but not EFT improved time-based PM performance in all participants. This is the first study to find spared time-based PM performance in autistic individuals. The results confirm earlier results of beneficial effects of EE on PM performance. Findings are discussed with regards to the methodology used, sample composition as well as autistic characteristics.

I Won't Forget to Do It If It's Important: A Multinomial Processing Tree Analysis of Social Importance and Monetary Reward on Event-Based Prospective Memory.

While previous research has suggested that prospective memory may be enhanced by providing a social motive (i.e., social importance) or by promising a monetary reward for successful performance, to the best of our knowledge, the underlying mechanisms responsible for these effects are still largely unexplored. In a sample of 96 younger adults, this study investigated how social importance and promising a monetary reward influence the prospective component and the retrospective component of event-based prospective memory separately, with the application of a multinomial modeling approach. Results revealed enhanced prospective memory performance for all importance conditions compared to a standard condition. This improvement was characterized by an increased allocation of resource-demanding attentional processes in performing the prospective memory task at the expense of the ongoing task without an increase in the perceived importance of the prospective memory task. The model-based analyses showed that the beneficial effects of importance arise from an increased engagement of the prospective component, leaving the estimates for the retrospective component unaffected.

Effect of negative emotion on prospective memory and its different components

Prospective memory is an important and complex social cognitive ability, which is easily disturbed by negative emotions. According to the relationship between prospective memory cues and ongoing tasks, prospective memory can be divided into focal prospective memory and non-focal prospective memory. This study focuses on the influence of negative emotions on different types of prospective memory. In Experiment 1, 117 participants were recruited, using a 2 (emotion: negative, neutral) × 2 (cue focality: focal, non-focal) between-subjects design to initially explore whether negative emotions can interfere with the prospective memory of both focal cue and non-focal cue. The results show that negative emotions simultaneously reduce both types of prospective memory performance. At the same time, negative emotions occupy additional attention resources and impair the prospective component of prospective memory with non-focal cues. In Experiment 2, 64 participants were recruited to improve the difficulty of the retrospective component of prospective memory with non-focal cues, and the influence of negative emotions on different components of prospective memory with non-focal cues was further explored. The results show that negative emotions can impair both the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory. In short, the results of this study indicate that negative emotion can impair prospective memory, and the impairment effect is not limited by the cue type of prospective memory. Meanwhile, negative emotion will occupy more attentional resources and simultaneously affect the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory.

From attentional fluctuations to intentional fluctuations? Monitoring behavior and intraindividual variability in time-based prospective memory.

In sharp contrast to event-based prospective memory (PM), dynamics of (re)allocation of attention between the ongoing and PM tasks have been much less investigated in time-based PM tasks. We propose an in-depth examination of attention allocation in a time-based PM task by jointly analyzing multiple indicators of time-monitoring behavior, net and time-structured intraindividual variability (IIV) in ongoing-task reaction times (OT RTs), and task performance. Results from dynamic structural equation modeling in a lifespan sample of 198 adults (19-86 years) revealed that larger fluctuations in OT RTs (net IIV) predicted poorer OT performance, but fostered a more efficient pattern of time-monitoring behavior (i.e., checking a clock more frequently and strategically, and slowing OT RTs during the PM response window) that, in turn, enhanced PM. Conversely, greater inertia in OT RTs (time-structured IIV) led to fewer clock-checks and poorer PM performance. Focusing attention on time monitoring to enhance PM performance did not detrimentally affect OT accuracy. Instead, participants showed a speed-accuracy tradeoff to optimize both OT and PM accuracies by slowing their OT RTs during the PM response window. This study therefore shows that two concomitant aspects of IIV (net and time-structured IIV) not only predicted time-monitoring behavior, but also OT and PM accuracies differentially, hence advocating for the necessity to consider both aspects of IIV and time monitoring together to better understand attention allocation policies in time-based PM tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of multiple sclerosis and aging on prospective memory using the ecological test of prospective memory.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to produce an action at a specific moment in the future signaled by the occurrence of a specific event (event-based [EB] condition), a time or a time interval (time-based [TB] condition). Detection of the appropriate moment corresponds to the prospective component, while production of the appropriate action corresponds to the retrospective component. Although PM difficulties have been reported in healthy aging and in association with multiple sclerosis (MS), PM has not been examined in older persons with MS (PwMS). The main objective of this study was to investigate whether the decline in PM performance with advancing age is influenced by the presence of MS. This study also aimed to clarify the type of PM impairment (prospective vs. retrospective component in TB and EB conditions) in MS as a function of age. A total of 80 participants were recruited and separated into four groups: older PwMS (n = 20), younger PwMS (n = 20), older controls (n = 20), and younger controls (n = 20). PM and its components were measured using the Test Ecologique de Mémoire Prospective (TEMP), an experimental ecological tool using naturalistic stimuli developed by our laboratory that has been validated in previous studies. On the TEMP total score, a two-way analysis of covariance showed a main effect of age, a main effect of the presence of MS, as well as a significant Age × Disease interaction. Direct comparison between EB and TB conditions revealed that for the prospective component, only older PwMS had more difficulty in the TB than in the EB condition, whereas the retrospective component score was significantly lower in the TB than in the EB condition in all groups except in younger controls. The TEMP revealed a marked impairment in PM in older PwMS compared to older controls and young PwMS. This impairment was particularly evident on the prospective component in the TB condition. Retrospective difficulties noted in the TB condition in all, but younger controls reflect the arbitrary nature of the cue-action link that is particularly sensitive to episodic memory difficulties often observed in aging and MS. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Prospective memory performance in veterans with and without histories of mild traumatic brain injury: effect of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype

ABSTRACT Objective Identifying factors that moderate cognitive outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is crucial. Prospective memory (PM) is a cognitive domain of interest in mTBI recovery as it may be especially sensitive to TBI-related changes. Since studies show that genetic status – particularly possession of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele – can modify PM performance, we investigated associations between mTBI status and APOE-ε4 genotype on PM performance in a well-characterized sample of Veterans with neurotrauma histories. Methods 59 Veterans (mTBI = 33, Military Controls [MCs] = 26; age range: 24–50; average years post-injury = 10.41) underwent a structured clinical interview, neuropsychological assessment, and genotyping. The Memory for Intentions Test (MIST) measured PM across multiple subscales. ANCOVAs, adjusting for age and posttraumatic stress symptoms, tested the effects of mTBI status (mTBI vs. MC) and ε4 status (ε4+ vs. ε4−) on MIST scores. Results Veterans with mTBI history performed more poorly compared to MCs on the MIST 15-min delay (p=.002, ηp 2 =.160), Time Cue (p = .003, ηp 2 =.157), and PM Total (p = .016, ηp 2 =.102). Those with at least one copy of the ε4 allele performed more poorly compared to ε4- Veterans on the MIST 15-min delay (p = .011, ηp 2 =.113) and PM Total (p = .048, ηp 2 = .071). No significant interactions were observed between mTBI and APOE-ε4 status on MIST outcomes (ps>.25). Within the mTBI group, APOE-ε4+ Veterans performed worse than APOE-ε4− Veterans on the MIST 15-min delay subscale (p = .031, ηp 2 = .150). Conclusions mTBI history and APOE-ε4 genotype status were independently associated with worse PM performance compared to those without head injury histories or possession of the APOE-e4 genotype. Performance on the MIST 15-min delay was worse in Veterans with both risk factors (mTBI history and APOE-ε4 positivity). Findings suggest that genetic status may modify outcomes even in relatively young Veterans with mTBI histories. Future research examining longitudinal associations and links to neuroimaging and biomarker data are needed.

An evaluation of the moderating effects of routine and busyness on the relationship between prospective memory and everyday functioning in older persons with HIV disease

ABSTRACT Introduction People living with HIV (PLWH) often experience difficulties in everyday functioning, which can arise in part from deficits in the strategic/executive aspects of prospective memory (PM). Using Suchy’s Contextually Valid Executive Assessment (ConVExA) framework, this study sought to determine whether the contextual factors of busyness and routine moderate the relationship between the strategic/executive aspects of PM and everyday functioning in older PLWH. Methods Participants in this cross-sectional analysis were 145 PLWH aged 50 years and older who had completed the Martin and Park Environmental Demands (MPED) questionnaire of routine and busyness, the performance-based Cambridge Test of Prospective Memory, and self-report measures of activities of daily living (ADLs) and cognitive symptoms in daily life. Results Multiple regression analyses covarying for relevant comorbidities showed that higher levels of busyness – but not routine – were associated with more frequent cognitive symptoms in daily life. Neither busyness nor routine interacted with PM in association with cognitive symptoms. However, routine and a strategic/executive measure of PM interacted in predicting ADLs; specifically, the association between time-based PM and ADLs was stronger in persons with higher levels of routine in their daily lives. Parallel analyses with less executively-demanding event-based PM were null and small. Conclusions Overall, findings provided mixed – and unexpected – evidence for the associations between contextual factors (i.e. routine and busyness), everyday functioning, and PM in this sample of older adults with HIV disease. Results and clinical implications are interpreted and discussed in the framework of the ConVExA model.

Efficacy of Digital and Non-Digital Compensatory Strategies in Supporting Prospective Memory Task Completion among Community-Dwelling Mid-Life and Older Adults.

Compensatory strategies can be used to help mid-life and older adults successfully manage instrumental activities of daily living that rely upon prospective memory. This study compared the quality of digital and non-digital compensatory strategies in supporting accurate completion of naturalistic, real-world prospective memory tasks. Participants included 70 community-dwelling mid-life and older adults. In this cross-sectional study, participants were tested remotely via Zoom in their homes. They were tasked with completing four real-world prospective memory tasks and encouraged to use their typical compensatory strategies. Utilized strategies were categorized, counted, and assigned quality scores (rating of thoroughness and utility), and prospective memory performance was coded. Participants who used any digital strategies utilized significantly more (ηp2 = .17) and better quality (ηp2 = .12) strategies than participants who did not use any digital strategies. However, the groups demonstrated equivalent prospective memory performance (ηp2 = .006). Within the digital group, participants' digital and non-digital strategies were of similar quality (d = .14) and resulted in similar prospective memory task accuracy (d = .01). Digital and non-digital strategies led to similar performance on naturalistic prospective memory tasks. Findings suggest that many different types of strategies can provide adequate prospective memory support to healthy mid-life and older adults. To inform development of compensatory strategy interventions, future studies should explore other factors that lead to successful prospective memory, such as the specific strategy type and task type match, across the continuum of cognitive impairment.

Meta-prospective memory accuracy in older adults with and without suspected Mild Cognitive Impairment (sMCI)

This study examined if the relationship between generalized and task-specific appraisals of prospective memory (PM) and actual PM performance (i.e., meta-PM accuracy) differed between healthy and suspected Mild Cognitive Impairment (sMCI) older adults. Older adults recruited included 50 healthy and 31 sMCI participants from the community and an outpatient neuropsychology clinic. Data collected consisted of self-reported appraisals and task-specific predictions/postdictions of PM performance, objective PM performance, and executive functioning (EF). The sMCI group had significantly lower scores on objective PM and EF measures related to simple and complex task-switching. Moreover, sMCI participants displayed lower task-specific meta-PM accuracy in the direction of overconfidence, but they displayed relatively equivalent generalized meta-PM accuracy when compared to the healthy group. Notably, the sMCI group’s task-specific inaccuracies became non-significant in relation to the healthy group on the final long-term PM tasks after exposure to metacognitive reflection on the first two PM tasks. Despite lower scores on EF measures, EF performance did not explain task-specific meta-PM differences between groups beyond neurocognitive status. Based on these data, sMCI patients may be better assisted by metacognitive calibration strategies, EF protocols, and the implementation of general compensatory memory strategies as targets for early intervention and prevention of neurocognitive decline.

Rumination, but not mood, predicts prospective memory performance: novel insights from a derived measure of trait rumination

ABSTRACT Prospective memory (PM) is the accurate execution of an intention in the future. PM may be negatively impacted by negative affect, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Rumination may increase the frequency of task-irrelevant thoughts, which deplete attentional capacity and reduce performance. To date, no studies have examined state and trait rumination on an online measure of PM. The present study examined the effects of state and trait rumination on an event-based, focal PM task embedded within a one-back task over multiple sessions. 95 non-depressed adults (18–53 years) completed measures of state/trait rumination, mood, and PM on at least two occasions. Using multi-level modelling, we found that a derived measure of trait rumination, but not an established trait rumination survey, nor negative mood, predicted poorer PM accuracy. These novel findings demonstrate that trait rumination may partially underlie the association between negative affect & PM in a non-clinical sample, and highlight the potential of online methods to study PM.

The Effect of Time Monitoring on the Development of Time-Based Prospective Memory among Children Aged 7-11 Years Old.

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) refers to the ability of an individual to successfully execute an expected plan in the future at a certain time point or after a definite period of time. This study investigated the potential developmental mechanism of school-age children's TBPM ability from the perspective of time monitoring. Experiment 1 used a between-subjects design of three ages (7, 9, 11) × two TBPM types (time point, time period) to investigate the trends and characteristics of two types of TBPM in children aged 7-11 years old. Experiment 2 used a between-subjects design of three ages (7, 9, 11) × two monitoring conditions (free monitoring, fixed monitoring) to investigate differences in two types of TBPM and monitoring behavior among school-age children under different monitoring conditions. These results showed that the age effect of TBPM was affected by the type of prospective memory (PM) and that time-point PM performance was significantly better than time-period PM performance among school-age children. These findings indicate that clear and definite external cues are helpful for school-age children in performing TBPM tasks. Moreover, there were significant differences found in the TBPM performance of school-age children under different time monitoring conditions. The performance of older children was significantly better than that of younger children. This indicates that older children can better allocate their attentional resources and use time monitoring strategies to improve their performance in PM tasks. Accordingly, this study showed that the TBPM ability of 7- to 11-year-old children is in continuous development and that the time monitoring behavior in the TBPM task is affected by task type and monitoring conditions.