Prospective Memory Task Research Articles

EXPRESS: Effect of cognitive style on time-based prospective memory.

Field-independent and field-dependent individuals have different reference patterns and cognitive processing preferences. Field-independent individuals tend to rely on internal capabilities and use internal references to process information, while field-dependent individuals mainly rely on external references and focus on external information. Individuals with two cognitive styles have different attention patterns to perform time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks, with different effects on their TBPM performance. This study explored the influence of field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles on TBPM. In Experiment 1, the attention load was manipulated by the difficulty of the ongoing task. The results showed that the field-independent individuals performed better than the field-dependent individuals only under a low-difficulty condition, indicating that the field-independent individuals had advantages in TBPM but were easily affected by the attention load. Experiment 2 further introduced external reminders to provide individuals with more external information and reduce individual attention consumption in internal time information processing to manipulate attention load. The results showed that external cues eliminated the difference between field-independent and field-dependent individuals in TBPM.

ERP and Behavioural Correlates of Prospective Memory in Bilinguals during L1 and L2 Processing.

Language influences how we process information from multiple domains. Thus, working in first (L1) or second language (L2) can modulate bilinguals' performance on basic activities, such as visual search, decision-making, or reading. However, few studies have explored the role of L1 and L2 processing during an essential ability, such as Prospective Memory (PM). This type of memory allows us to set intentions to perform in the future (e.g., to attend an appointment). Thus, this is a novel study that allows us to explore the influence of bilingual language processing on certain cognitive abilities, which have not been deeply studied yet, such as the recall of future intentions. Thereby, this study aimed to explore the neural and behavioural correlates of bilinguals during L1 and L2 processing in a PM task where participants had to carry out an ongoing task while recovering a prospective intention given a PM cue. Importantly, the nature of the PM cue (focal or non-focal) varied the monitoring demands of the task. Behavioural and Event-Related Potential (ERP) results indicated greater engagement of monitoring processes in the PM task during L2 processing. Specifically, in L2, we found lower accuracy rates in the ongoing task and smaller amplitude differences between the focal and non-focal conditions in the P3b. Altogether, these findings suggest an impairment in prospective processing due to working in L2 contexts, supporting previous research on the impact of the bilingual experience over PM.

Prospective Memory Function Predicts Future Cognitive Decline and Incident Dementia.

This study aimed to test whether prospective memory (PM) was an early cognitive marker of future cognitive decline and incident dementia using longitudinal data spanning 8years from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. At baseline, 121 participants aged 72-91years were tested in PM using a validated PM task, Virtual Week, which included time- and event-based tasks presented with varying regularity. Responses were scored "Correct" if completed accurately and "Missed" if the target was not remembered at any time. Measures of cognition were taken at baseline and 2-year intervals over 8years. Dementia diagnoses were made by expert consensus panels using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria. Linear mixed models and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analyze the data, controlling for potential confounds. Both decreased PM accuracy and missed PM responses were associated with rate of cognitive decline measured by Mini-Mental State Examination over 8years and global cognitive decline over 4years. Risk of incident dementia increased with poorer baseline PM ability and missed responses. These effects remained significant after controlling for baseline cognition and were strongest for event-based and regular PM tasks. PM is a sensitive early marker of future cognitive decline and risk of incident dementia. PM tasks supported by spontaneous retrieval (event-based) and those with lower retrospective memory demands (regular tasks) function as particularly sensitive predictors. In other words, deficits in performing less effortful PM tasks best predicted cognitive decline. These findings may encourage clinicians to incorporate PM tasks in clinical assessments.

The effect of implementation intentions on event-, time-, and activity-based prospective memory in typically developing children

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember and complete planned tasks in the future, which relies on working memory (WM) for encoding and maintaining the intention. Implementation intention is a useful strategy for improving PM function in adults. Yet the effect of implementation intentions in children, and whether factors such as age, gender, and WM capacity could modulate its effect remains unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of implementation intentions on PM in 154 children at 7–11 years of age. The standard group received standard instructions on PM task, whereas the implementation intention group received additional PM instruction, which comprised the “if . then .” format and guided visual imagery of the PM scenario. Participants completed the computer-based PM tasks (tapping into focal event-, time-, and activity-based PM) and the WM tests. The results showed that the two groups exhibited similar focal event-, time-, and activity-based PM performance. Although age and gender did not modulate the effect of implementation intentions on PM, WM capacity moderated the implementation intention effect on time-based PM. Specifically, higher WM capacity predicted higher implementation intention benefit. These findings suggest that children with higher WM capacity may have higher chance to benefit from the implementation intention strategy.

AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN PROSPECTIVE MEMORY: TURKISH VIRTUAL WEEK (VW-TR)

Introduction: Prospective memory, which involves remembering intended future actions, is a vital function in terms of autonomy, quality of life, and everyday functioning. The primary aim of this study is to examine how aging affects prospective memory performance; its secondary aim is to adapt a laboratory-based prospective memory task, Virtual Week, to the Turkish culture and investigate its efficacy across young and old age groups. Materials and Method: The study was conducted with 60 young (18–25 years) and 60 old (60–87 years) participants. Participants were included based on their results on cognitive screening tests (Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Activities of Daily Living Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory). In addition, the Stroop and Trail Making tests were administered to measure executive functions. Finally, the laboratory-based prospective memory task Virtual Week was performed. Results: Virtual Week has been adapted to Turkish culture and shown to be reliable (Spearman–Brown: 0.82). ANOVA was conducted to analyze the effect of aging on the Virtual Week task, and the results showed that young adults were more successful than older adults in prospective memory tasks (p < .05). Conclusion: The results support the theory of the aging paradox in prospective memory, which suggests that older adults exhibit lower performance in laboratory-based prospective memory tasks. The findings are discussed in the context of the relevant literature. Keywords: Memory; Cognitive Aging; Executive Function; Young Adult; Aged.

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.

An assessment of learning rates in habitual prospective memory.

Most laboratory research in the field of prospective memory has focused on newly formed (episodic) intentions that are carried out in the experimental context once or only a small number of times. However, many naturalistic prospective memories are carried out many times and these types of (habitual) intentions have been studied much less in the laboratory. In the current study, our aim was to extend prior work examining habitual intentions in laboratory prospective memory paradigms. Participants formed a typical prospective memory intention and then completed an ongoing task in which the intention could be executed up to 63 times. We examined changes in performance across trials in three traditionally important prospective memory metrics: cue detection, task interference, and cue interference. Across repeated performance of the prospective memory task, we observed an increase in cue detection, elimination of task interference, and elimination of cue interference. These results provide key insights into the operation of learning mechanisms in prospective memory paradigms and promote theory development by showing that many of the resource-demanding processes that are theorized to be necessary for successful prospective memory play much less of a role when intentions are repeatedly completed.

External Time Monitoring in Time-Based Prospective Memory: An Integrative Framework.

We propose a new integrative framework of external time monitoring in prospective memory (PM) tasks and its relation with performance. Starting from existing empirical regularities andour theoretical analysis, theframework predicts that external monitoring in PM tasks comprises a first stage of loose monitoring to keep track of the passage of time, and a subsequent stage of finer-grained monitoring, based on interval reduction, to meet the PM deadline. Following our framework, we predicted and observed in three different datasets (N = 375): (1) a marked increase in external monitoring frequency in the final part of the period of the PM task, well captured by a proportional rate exponential growth function; (2) a positive association between individual compliance with this monitoring pattern and PM performance; (3) a positive relation between monitoring frequency in the time window immediately preceding the PM deadline and PM performance at the individual level; and (4) good individual compliance with an interval reduction pattern in external monitoring, especially in the time window closer to the PM deadline. These results support the proposed integrative framework, which has the potential to foster future research on external monitoring in PM and in other fields of cognitive science.

Dynamic functional connectivity associated with prospective memory success in children

To remember the prospective intention successfully, going back and forth between the background task and the intention, i.e., the dynamics of these multiple processes can be critical. An executive function like task switching has been associated with the success of prospective memory (PM) in children, but the neural mechanism of PM in children has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to reveal the dynamic functional connectivity underlying the success of PM in children. Healthy 108 children, aged 7 to 15, were engaged in a single trial PM task, with a 30-min delay. Temporal variabilities in their resting-state functional connectivity were analyzed, using sliding windows with seed regions of interest ROIs of the PM network. About 70% of children successfully remembered the intention; they showed greater dynamics in neural connectivity between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and intraparietal sulcus, and between the right DLPFC and insula as compared to children with PM failure. Everyday activities and the usual attention to ongoing processes can be associated with alertness in the right frontoparietal network and internal-state monitoring in the insula network, and those dynamics might be associated with one-time event PM success in children.

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in breast cancer: Use of a virtual reality prospective memory task.

BackgroundPrevious studies have revealed both sleep alterations and prospective memory (PM) impairments in breast cancer (BC) patients. PM refers to memory of intended actions and is crucial for daily living tasks and treatment compliance. As sleep is known to favor memory consolidation, one may expect that changes in sleep quality related to BC would have an impact on PM performance. This study aimed at assessing sleep-dependent consolidation of intentions using an ecological, virtual reality-based PM task in BC patients not treated with chemotherapy.Materials and methodsThirty-seven early stages BC patients and 21 healthy controls (HC) participated in this study. PM was assessed using a virtual reality task, during which participants learnt a list of intentions and recalled them after a retention interval filled with a day awake or a night of sleep monitored by polysomnography. Sleep spindles and slow waves, brain oscillations involved in sleep-dependent memory consolidation, were quantified automatically using the Aseega software (Physip). Subjective sleep disturbances and markers of quality of life (psychological distress, fatigue, and well-being) were assessed by questionnaires.ResultsGreater PM performance was observed after sleep than after an equivalent period of daytime wakefulness for both groups (HC and BC). PM performance after sleep did not differ significantly between groups. Yet, BC patients reported greater sleep disturbances than HC which were related with poorer intentions retrieval, greater psychological distress, fatigue and poorer well-being. The frequency of spindles was higher and the amplitude of slow waves lower in BC patients compared to HC. However, no significant association was observed between polysomnography parameters and PM scores in the whole sample of participants.ConclusionAlthough subtle changes in brain oscillations involved in sleep-dependent memory consolidation were observed, these changes did not significantly impair overnight PM consolidation in BC patients. Nevertheless, poorer PM performance was associated with greater sleep complaints which in turn were related to poorer quality of life. Overall, these data suggest that sleep-dependent PM consolidation mechanisms are not altered in early stages BC patients not treated with chemotherapy. Further investigations are needed to understand the association between markers of quality of life and sleep-dependent memory consolidation.

A-107 Evaluating the Quality of Real-World Compensatory Strategy Use in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract Objective: Older adults often spontaneously engage in compensatory strategies (CS) to support completion of everyday tasks. However, factors that influence the success of chosen strategies remain unclear. The present study aimed to examine if evaluation of the overall quality of compensatory strategies, as compared to a count of strategies, better predicts completion of real-world prospective memory (PM) tasks. Method: Seventy community-dwelling older adults (M = 70.80, SD = 7.87) completed two testing sessions remotely from their own homes through video conferencing. Participants were presented four novel real-world PM tasks designed to be carried out independently in the future. Upon task presentation, participants were given time to plan and encouraged to use their typical CS. The examiner captured detailed information about CS planned at task presentation and strategies utilized at follow-up testing, as well as PM task accuracy. In addition to a count of CS, participants’ CS were assigned a quality score upon video review. Results: Hierarchical regression revealed that Compensatory Strategy Quality (CSQ) score provides incremental validity in predicting PM task accuracy over and above CS count, global cognition, and age (ΔR2 = 0.24, ΔF = 29.36, p < 0.001). CSQ uniquely accounted for 24.01% of the variance in PM task accuracy (sr = 0.49, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Evaluating quality of cognitive CS provides enhanced precision in predicting PM. Findings of this study may provide researchers with tools to study compensation in a more nuanced manner. Furthermore, findings have the potential to be translated into clinical interventions, such as targeted compensatory strategy trainings.

A-296 Meta-Prospective Memory Accuracy in Healthy Older Adults and Older Adults with Suspected Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Rural Setting

Abstract Objective: This study examined if the relationship between generalized appraisals and task-specific appraisals of one’s prospective memory (PM) and actual PM performance (i.e., meta-PM accuracy) differed between healthy and suspected mild cognitive impairment (sMCI) older adults. Method: 50 healthy and 30 sMCI older adults were recruited from a rural community and outpatient neuropsychology clinic. Data collected included self-reported appraisals and task-specific predictions/postdictions of PM performance, objective PM performance, and executive functioning (EF) measures. Results: The sMCI group had significantly lower scores on objective PM tasks (t = 5.13, p<.001), as well as EF measures related to simple (t = -3.72, p<.001) and complex task-switching (t = 4.82, p<.001). Moreover, sMCI participants displayed higher task-specific meta-PM inaccuracies compared to the healthy group (t = -3.72, p < .001), but displayed relatively equivalent generalized meta-PM (Z = 1.58, p = .11). Notably, the sMCI group’s task-specific inaccuracies became non-significant compared to the healthy group on the final long-term PM tasks (item 3: t = -1.64, p = .11; item 4: t = -0.66, p = .51) after exposure to metacognitive reflection on the first PM tasks. Despite lower scores on EF measures and more inaccurate task-specific meta-PM, EF performance did not explain task-specific meta-PM differences between groups beyond neurocognitive status, utilizing hierarchical regression. Conclusions: Using 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.

Using EEG to investigate the influence of boredom on prospective memory in top-down and bottom-up processing mechanisms for intelligent interaction

We aimed to investigate the alpha (α) activity in operators experiencing boredom while performing prolonged monitoring and prospective memory tasks using different processing mechanisms. Fifty-four participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and were found to have poorer prospective memory performance under top-down conditions. Further, α power and synchronisation were higher during bottom-up than in top-down processes, revealing an inhibition effect of the former. Significant differences in brain regions and hemispheres were identified to distinguish different cognitive processes in both information-processing mechanisms. Thus, people are likely to cope with boredom differently in terms of top-down and bottom-up processes. Specifically, a higher attention level was reported during top-down processing, to mitigate the negative influences of boredom. Overall, this study provides EEG evidence which suggests that prospective memory can be enhanced in top-down processing during prolonged monitoring tasks by increasing the salience of cues.

"Teacher, forgive me, I forgot to do it!" The impact of children's prospective memory on teachers' evaluation of academic performance.

According to Munsat (1965, The concept of memory. University of Michigan), a person who makes frequent prospective memory (PM) errors is considered as having a flawed character rather than a bad memory. Given that PM completes its development only in young adulthood, this bias might occur not only within social relationships but also in school. However, little is known about the impact of this bias on academic performance. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of children's PM on teacher's evaluations of their academic performance (i.e., grades) and social skills. A total of 158 eight- and twelve-year-old children (48% females) participated in this study. A working memory (WM) updating task was used as ongoing task (OT), in which the PM task was embedded and required participants to respond whenever certain pictures appeared. Children's social skills were measured through teacher ratings, whereas grades were collected as indicators of teachers' assessment of academic performance. Children's WM span and inhibitory control were also assessed. Results showed that 8- and 12-year-old children's academic performance was predicted by both PM performance and teachers' evaluations of social skills. However, social skills evaluations were not predicted by PM performance. WM span was related to grades in 8year olds, while inhibitory control was related to PM performance in 12 year olds. These outcomes highlight that children's grades are not explained only by academic performance itself but also by other personal skills. Awareness of the biases which can occur when evaluating children's academic performance can help teachers to be more objective in their assessment.

Early mobile app training proficiency predicts how well memory-impaired individuals learn to use digital memory aids in the real world

ABSTRACT Functional memory impairment following acquired brain injury can lead to decreased independence. External memory aids such as smartphones can be highly effective compensation tools, but cognitive deficits may create barriers to implementation in daily life. The present study examined predictors of real-world use of mobile calendar applications for memory compensation in an acquired brain injury sample. A retrospective chart review was completed from an outpatient rehabilitation program, extending 15 years into the past, yielding data from 34 eligible participants. All participants demonstrated skill learning of the calendar function in their digital device and subsequently completed the generalization phase of training, which is focused on real-world implementation (measured through prospective memory tasks). The results showed that the length of time required for skill learning of mobile calendars (event entry or responding to alerts) was not predictive of the duration of generalization training. Initial training performance for responding to alerts, but not event entry, was a significant predictor of the duration of generalization training needed to complete the program. A secondary analysis with a subset of the data revealed that individuals with additional executive deficits took significantly longer to complete generalization training compared to those with a more focal memory impairment.

Target learning in event-based prospective memory.

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require individuals to remember to perform a previously planned action when they encounter a specific event. Often, the natural environments in which PM tasks occur are embedded are constantly changing, requiring humans to adapt by learning. We examine one such adaptation by integrating PM target learning with the prospective memory decision control (PMDC) cognitive model. We apply this augmented model to an experiment that manipulated exposure to PM targets, comparing a single-target PM condition where the target was well learned from the outset, to a multiple-target PM condition with less initial PM target exposure, allowing us to examine the effect of continued target learning opportunities. Single-target PM accuracy was near ceiling whereas multiple-target PM accuracy was initially poorer but improved throughout the course of the experiment. PM response times were longer for the multiple- compared with single-target PM task but this difference also decreased over time. The model indicated that PM trial evidence accumulation rates, and the inhibition of competing responses, were initially higher for single compared to multiple PM targets, but that this difference decreased over time due to the learning of multiple-targets over the target repetitions. These outcomes provide insight into how the processes underlying event-based PM can dynamically evolve over time, and a modeling framework to further investigate the effect of learning on event-based PM decision processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Non-Cognitive Factors in Prospective Memory in Older Adults

A key neuro-cognitive function that promotes autonomy and everyday functioning in old age is prospective memory (PM), defined as the capacity to remember to carry out intentions in the future. This study aimed at understanding if non-cognitive factors of metacognition and motivation are related to event-based and time-based laboratory PM, as well as to naturalistic PM in older adults, above and beyond the influences of neuropsychological determinants. We applied regression analyses predicting individual differences in classical PM tasks, in a sample of 99 healthy older participants (aged 64–88 years). Results indicated that metacognition, measured as memory self-efficacy and perceived competence in cognitive tasks, was related to laboratory time-based PM. Consistency of interests, a motivational factor, was associated with naturalistic PM. None of the non-cognitive factors related to event-based PM. Our study underlines the importance of considering non-cognitive characteristics when evaluating PM capacity, a key component of cognitive aging.

Prospective memory assessment: Scientific advances and future directions.

Prospective Memory (PM), the ability to remember to realize intended actions in the future, is crucial for maintaining autonomy. Decades of research has focused on a so-called age PM paradox, where older adults outperformed younger adults on some PM tasks, but not others. Contributing to this paradox is heterogeneity in and a lack of valid assessment methods. Previous research showed a lack of convergent validity between performance-based PM and both self-report and informant-report measures. We argue that questionnaires may be relevant to obtain information regarding patients’ awareness of their PM difficulties but need to be used in conjunction with performance-based tools. Within performance-based PM tools there are also difficulties in measurement: 15–60 min experimental tasks and batteries have a good reliability but cannot usually fit in a standard clinical evaluation, while shorter PM measures have lower reliability and sensitivity. In this perspective paper, we encourage researchers to develop more ecologically valid tools. Innovative PM paradigms that allow participants to generate their own intentions and that take task costs into consideration should be developed. Future research will also need to focus on cognitive factors, personality and online evaluation, to improve PM assessment and develop ad-hoc rehabilitation programs.

Inhibition in preschool children at risk of developmental language disorder

It has been hypothesised that executive function deficits, specifically inhibition difficulties, may play a central role in Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The presented study compared the response inhibition abilities of typically developing preschool children, with monolingual and bilingual preschool children who had already been classed as being at risk of developing DLD. A non-word repetition test and two inhibition tasks were used along with a prospective memory task. The results indicated that children at risk of DLD performed significantly worse than typically developing children on all tasks. The findings suggest that children at risk of DLD are impaired in response inhibition. Educational and therapeutic implications are discussed.

The effects of implementation intentions on prospective memory in young and older adults.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to perform a planned action at a future time, while carrying on with other unrelated tasks. Implementation Intentions (II) is a promising metacognitive strategy for improving PM in older adults, though its generalization and longer-term effects are not well-understood. We examined the effects of II on PM in 48 community-dwelling older adults (77% female, Mage = 71.52) and 59 young adults (75% female, Mage = 19.86). Participants were randomly allocated to a conventional instruction or II group and administered a laboratory-based PM task in the first session. In the second session, participants returned to complete a similar but new laboratory-based PM task and an ecological PM task without prompts to use a strategy. We found strong age effects on PM performance whereby older adults performed worse than young adults across all PM tasks. While the overall facilitation effect of II was not statistically significant, there was a trend that this strategy facilitated PM performance on the laboratory-based PM task in the first session for older adults with a medium sized effect (d = 0.37). The generalization and longer-term effect of II were not significant for either the similar laboratory-based or the ecological PM task. These results suggest that a single-session II intervention may not be sufficient to elicit transfer to other similar new PM tasks in healthy populations.