Time-based Prospective Memory Task Research Articles

Keeping the Time: The Impact of External Clock-Speed Manipulation on Time-Based Prospective Memory.

Several studies have suggested that time monitoring is important for appropriate time-based prospective memory (TBPM). However, it is still unknown if people actively use internal timing processes to monitor the approaching target time, and whether they do so by tracking the duration between clock digits, or by counting and matching the numerical progression of clock ticks' digits with the target time. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated whether a manipulation of the external time affected time monitoring and TBPM performance. In two experiments, participants performed two identical TBPM tasks: a first TBPM block with no clock-speed manipulation followed by a second TBPM block, where the clock-speed was manipulated as faster or slower (experimental conditions) or normal (control condition). The results showed that only participants in the slower clock condition increased time monitoring in the second compared to the first TBPM block (d = 0.42 and 1.70); moreover, particularly in Experiment 2, participants in the faster clock condition checked the clock significantly less frequently than participants in the slower clock (d = -1.70) and in the control condition (d = -0.98), but only during the 4th minute. No effect was found for TBPM performance. Overall, results suggested that people tracked the target time by counting and matching the numerical progression of clock ticks' digits with the target time. The findings are discussed considering the most recent theoretical advancements about the relationship between time perception and TBPM.

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.

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).

Effects of age-based stereotype threat on time-based prospective memory.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a blatant activation of age-based stereotype threats (ABST) on time-based prospective memory (TBPM) in older adults. A sample of 74 adults from Hong Kong was randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions: the stereotyped condition (n = 36) or the neutral condition (n = 38). Participants were asked to read fictitious news reports related to dementia (stereotyped condition) or the importance of English oral skills (neutral condition). After, all participants performed a TBPM task using the Chinese lexical decision task as an ongoing task block. The results indicate a main effect of ABST on TBPM accuracy. Specifically, older adults under a blatant activation of ABST demonstrated lower TBPM accuracy (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.08). Further analyses based on age groups demonstrated that TBPM accuracy was only impaired in older participants (aged 70-80 years) (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.19). The study, for the first time, provides evidence that ABST can disrupt TBPM performance in older adults, especially when cues are blatantly activated.

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.

Differences in time-based prospective memory between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles under different time monitoring conditions

Time-based prospective memory involves tasks that must be executed at a specific time in the future. Individuals can complete time-based prospective memory tasks using internal attention and external attention. Field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles are two of the most well-known cognitive styles. Field-independent individuals and field-dependent individuals prefer to use internal reference and external reference to process information, respectively, which implies that there may be differences in the processing mechanisms of the two cognitive styles when performing time-based prospective memory tasks. This study focused on differences in time-based prospective memory performance and processing mechanisms between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive style individuals under different time monitoring conditions. A total of 119 participants were recruited through an Embedded Figure Test and divided into four groups. Time monitoring conditions consisted of a free monitoring condition and a restricted monitoring condition. Participants in the restricted monitoring condition could only press the space bar once, whereas those in the free monitoring condition could check the time at any time and without restrictions. The results of the study showed that field-independent individuals expend less internal and external attention than field-dependent individuals. However, field-independent individuals have higher attention effectiveness and employ more strategies for processing time information. Field-independent individuals were also found to have better time-based prospective memory performance under both time monitoring conditions. Field-dependent individuals did check the time more often under the free monitoring condition, but their time-based prospective memory performance did not benefit from more external attention because although they expended more external attention, they did so less effectively. In short, compared with field-dependent individuals, field-independent individuals had better time-based prospective memory performance under both time monitoring conditions because they have higher attention effectiveness and adopt more strategies for the processing of time information.

The cost of monitoring in time-based prospective memory

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) involves remembering to perform actions at specific times in the future. Several studies suggest that monetary consequences improve prospective remembering; however, the effect of monetary consequences on strategic time monitoring (i.e., clock-checking behaviour) in TBPM is still unknown. The present study investigated how the monetary costs on clock-checking affected TBPM accuracy and strategic time monitoring. Participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task while carrying out a TBPM task every two minutes. Motivational incentives were manipulated across three experimental conditions: a single-cost condition in which missed TBPM responses led to monetary deductions, a double-cost condition in which both missed responses and time monitoring led to monetary deductions, and a control condition with no monetary deductions. Overall, the findings indicated that monetary costs on clock-checking prompted more parsimonious strategic time monitoring behaviour, which negatively impacted TBPM accuracy. These results emphasize the importance of weighing the motivational aspects involved in strategic monitoring, shedding light on the complex relationship between clock-checking behaviour, its consequences, and TBPM performance.

Relationship Between Future Thinking and Prospective Memory in Alzheimer's Disease.

Future thinking and prospective memory are two cognitive processes oriented toward the future and reliant on the ability to envision oneself in future scenarios. We explored the connection between future thinking and prospective memory in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We invited both AD participants and control participants to engage in event-based prospective memory tasks (e.g., "please hand me this stopwatch when I inform you there are 10 minutes remaining") and time-based prospective memory tasks (e.g., "close the book you are working on in five minutes"). Additionally, we asked participants to engage in a future thinking task where they imagined upcoming events. Analysis revealed that AD participants exhibited lower performance in both prospective memory tasks and future thinking compared to the control group. Importantly, we identified significant positive correlations between the performance on event- and time-based prospective memory tasks and future thinking abilities among AD participants. These findings underscore the connection between the decline in both prospective memory domains and the ability to envision future events in individuals with AD. Our results also shed light on the challenges AD individuals face when trying to project themselves into the future to mentally pre-experience upcoming events.

The Processing Mechanism of Repetitive Practice Affecting Time-Based Prospective Memory.

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) refers to performing intended actions at a specific time in the future. The TBPM task is very common in daily life, and whether it can be successfully completed can affect our quality of life. Repeated behavior training can usually improve social cognitive performance, and this study focused on exploring whether TBPM performance could improve with repeated behavior training. Meanwhile, we also focused on whether behavior training could reduce attention consumption, both internal and external, attention on TBPM tasks. In this study, a single-factor between-subject design was adopted. Seventy-three undergraduates were assigned to three groups: the control group, the baseline group, and the experimental group. The baseline group only needs to perform ongoing tasks, so the ongoing task performance of the control group will not be affected by TBPM tasks. The control group needs to perform both ongoing and TBPM tasks without practice. The experimental group needs to perform both ongoing and TBPM tasks after 30 exercises. The ongoing task is a typical working memory task. The TBPM task was to press a "1" button every 1 min. The results showed that the performance of ongoing tasks in the baseline group, experimental group, and control group decreased sequentially, and the experimental group had less time monitoring than the control group. The results indicated that behavior training could reduce attention consumption in both internal attention and external attention, but it could not reach the level of automatic processing.

The difference of time-based prospective memory between Type A and Type B individuals under different time monitoring conditions.

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is affected by many factors, which include Type A and Type B personality types. Type A individuals have a strong desire to complete tasks and a strong sense of time-urgency to complete established tasks before the deadline. Type B individuals have fewer time constraints and usually procrastinate until the deadline to complete the task. Compared with Type B individuals, Type A individuals may perform better in TBPM due to their advantages in time cognition and attitude. This study explores the differences in the TBPM ability between Type A individuals and Type B individuals under different time monitoring conditions. In Experiment 1, there was no limit to how many times participants could check the time. The results showed that the performance of TBPM between Type A individuals and Type B individuals was not different. In Experiment 2, participants could only check the time once during each TBPM task. The results showed that, compared to Type B individuals, Type A individuals performed better in TBPM, with higher time monitoring frequency and slower response speed to the ongoing tasks. These findings suggest that the performance of Type A individuals in TBPM has an advantage only under the restricted time monitoring condition. This advantage is then mainly due to the increase in the attention consumption of Type A individuals in both internal and external attention.

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.

Subjective cognitive decline disrupts aspects of prospective memory in older adults with HIV disease

ABSTRACT Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a risk factor for dementia that may occur at higher rates in people with HIV (PWH). Prospective memory (PM) is an aspect of cognition that may help us better understand how SCD impacts daily life. Paricipants were 62 PWH aged ≥ 50 years and 33 seronegative individuals. SCD was operationalized as normatively elevated cognitive symptoms on standardized questionnaires, but with normatively unimpaired performance-based cognition and no current affective disorders. PM was measured with the Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory (CAPM), the Cambridge Test of Prospective Memory (CAMPROMPT), and an experimental computerized time-based PM task. A logistic regression revealed that older PWH had a three-fold increased likelihood for SCD. Among the PWH, SCD was associated with more frequent PM symptoms and poorer accuracy on the time-based scale of the CAMPROMPT. These findings suggest that SCD disrupts PM in older PWH.

Clock monitoring is associated with age-related decline in time-based prospective memory

In laboratory time-based prospective memory tasks, older adults typically perform worse than younger adults do. It has been suggested that less frequent clock checking due to problems with executive functions may be responsible. We aimed to investigate the role of clock checking in older adults’ time-based prospective memory and to clarify whether executive functions would be associated with clock checking and consequently, with time-based prospective memory. We included 62 healthy older adults (62-85 years of age) and applied tasks of time-based prospective memory as well as of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, fluency, and working memory). We used mediation analysis to test whether time-based prospective memory declined with advancing age due to less frequent clock checking. In addition, we tested whether there would be an association between executive functions and clock checking or time-based prospective memory. Time-based prospective memory declined with advancing age due to less frequent clock checking within 30s prior to intention completion. We only found a link between executive functions and clock checking (or time-based prospective memory) when not controlling for age. Our results support the importance of clock checking for time-based prospective memory and add to the current literature that older adults’ prospective memory declines because they are less able to adapt their clock checking. Yet, the reason why older adults are less able to adapt their clock checking still remains open. Our results do not indicate that executive function deficits play a central role.

Recreational drug use and prospective memory.

Prospective memory (PM) impairment in recreational drug users has been documented in recent years. However, most studies on the effects of drugs on PM contain several methodological challenges, such as small sample size (< 100 participants), unrepresentative sample type (e.g., student or patient), short abstinence period (< 7days), and lack of control of potential confounds (e.g., sleep and IQ). The present study investigated the possible consequences of recreational drug use on prospective memory, using self-report and lab-based prospective memory measures while overcoming the methodological challenges. The sample was composed of 47 non-users (27 females, age range from 18 to 50 +) and 53 drug users (21 females, age range from 18 to 50 +). Recreational drug users reported significantly more deficits in the long-term episodic, short-term habitual, and internally cued PM failures subscales of the Prospective Memory Questionnaire. However, these deficits were eliminated after controlling for covariates (e.g., age, sleep quality, general health, alcohol usage). Recreational drug users also performed worse than non-users in the short-term, long-term, event-based, and time-based PM subscales of the Royal Prince Alfred Prospective Memory Test. These results remained significant after controlling for the covariates. Drug users demonstrated greater impairments on time-based and long-term PM tasks thought to be linked with executive functioning. Taken together, the present study provides further support for recreational drug-related deficits in PM and highlights a dissociation between self-report and lab-based PM measures.

Effective external reminders impair the practice effect of time-based prospective memory.

The practice effect of time-based prospective memory (TBPM) refers to the phenomenon that TBPM task performance can be significantly improved by repetitive behavioural training. However, reminders are a common strategy for people to perform TBPM tasks in daily life. A large amount of evidence shows that reminders can improve TBPM performance when individuals pay less attention to time information. However, the present study was the first to explore whether external reminders might simultaneously impede the practice effect of TBPM. In this study, 81 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to control group (N=27, Mage =20.00, SDage =1.04), reminder group (N=26, Mage =20.35, SDage =1.70) and non-reminder group (N=28, Mage =20.25, SDage =1.17). In the training stage, the reminder group could receive effective external reminders, while the non-reminder group could not. The results of the training stage revealed that compared with the non-reminder group, the reminder group had fewer time monitoring times and better TBPM performance. In the testing stage, when reminders were removed from the reminder group, we found that compared with the control group without TBPM training, the TBPM performance of the reminder group failed to improve, while that of the non-reminder group improved significantly. Meanwhile, the time estimation ability of the reminder group was not as improved as that of the non-reminder group.

Validation of the Prospective Memory Concerns Questionnaire (PMCQ).

Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to complete intended tasks, is essential for successfully completing activities of daily living. PM impairments are common in people with neuropathology such as acquired brain injury and dementia. These PM impairments affect individuals’ capabilities in key aspects of daily living including their health, safety, and independence. The Prospective Memory Concerns Questionnaire (PMCQ) was designed as a self-report measure to understand individuals’ concerns about their memory. This questionnaire may help identify issues with PM which in turn may assist clinicians in the targeted implementation of memory compensation strategies. The PMCQ was developed using Rasch and classical test methodologies, with subscales measuring frequency of forgetting behaviors, memory concerns, and retrieval failures. The current study aimed to confirm the factor structure of the PMCQ for use in adults in the general population. The study also aimed to examine relationships between the PMCQ and naturalistic performance-based measures of PM to determine how the self-report PMCQ could be used in conjunction with performance-based measures. A community dwelling sample of 558 adults completed the PMCQ, an event-based naturalistic PM task, and time-based naturalistic PM task. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) indicated that a higher order model with three subscales containing 35 items produced acceptable fit [RMSEA = 0.056 (90% CI 0.054, 0.060), SRMR = 0.062, CFI = 0.915, TLI = 0.909] The PMCQ demonstrated good internal consistency (total α = 0.95, subscales: α = 0.88–0.89). The Forgetting Behaviors subscale significantly correlated with performance on the event-based naturalistic PM task (r = −0.14, p < 0.01). The Memory Concerns and Retrieval Failures subscales did not correlate significantly with performance-based PM tasks. These findings suggest that the PMCQ may be best suited for assessing individuals’ concerns about their forgetting behaviors and identifying appropriate compensation strategies or support services. It is recommended that the PMCQ be used alongside performance-based PM tasks and other cognitive measures to comprehensively assess PM. It was concluded that the PMCQ is a suitable measure for use in adults in the general population. Further validation research of the PMCQ in general population and clinical samples will determine the measures’ sensitivity and specificity in identifying PM impairments.

Prospective Memory and Regional Functional Connectivity in Subcortical Ischemic Vascular Disease.

Objectives: Patients with subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) often have prominent frontal dysfunction. However, it remains unclear how SIVD affects prospective memory (PM), which strongly relies on the frontoparietal network. The present study aimed to investigate PM performance in patients with early stage SIVD as compared to those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to older adults with normal cognition, and to explore the neural correlates of PM deficits.Method: Patients with very-mild to mild dementia due to SIVD or AD and normal controls (NC) aged above 60 years were recruited. Seventy-three participants (20 SIVD, 22 AD, and 31 NC) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cognitive screening tests, and a computerized PM test. Sixty-five of these participants (19 SIVD, 20 AD, and 26 NC) also received resting-state functional MRI.Results: The group with SIVD had significantly fewer PM hits than the control group on both time-based and non-focal event-based PM tasks. Among patients in the very early stage, only those with SIVD but not AD performed significantly worse than the controls. Correlational analyses showed that non-focal event-based PM in SIVD was positively correlated with regional homogeneity in bilateral superior and middle frontal gyri, while time-based PM was not significantly associated with regional homogeneity in any of the regions of interest within the dorsal frontoparietal regions.Conclusions: The findings of this study highlight the vulnerability of non-focal event-based PM to the disruption of regional functional connectivity in bilateral superior and middle frontal gyri in patients with SIVD.

Dynamic Attention Regulation for Prospective Goals in Schizophrenia

Whether patients with schizophrenia are impaired in flexibly regulating attention in accordance with fluctuations in cognitive demand to achieve optimal task performance remains unclear. To address this issue, 47 patients with schizophrenia and 47 matched control participants were recruited to complete a time-based prospective memory task. Every 2-min block before the target time was divided into four 30-s intervals, after which the time check and intraindividual response time variability (IIRTV) across these intervals were calculated. Patients with schizophrenia displayed significantly higher IIRTV across all four time intervals and checked time less frequently during the last 30-s interval relative to control subjects. Moreover, the reduced change in time-checking frequency and IIRTV between the first and the last 30-s intervals was related to poorer time-based prospective memory performance in patients with schizophrenia. Our findings provide initial evidence that an inefficient capacity to dynamically allocate attentional resources during an ongoing task hinders dual-task performance in schizophrenia.

Resting-state functional brain connectivity predicts cognitive performance: An exploratory study on a time-based prospective memory task

Resting-state functional brain connectivity (rsFC) is in wide use for the investigation of a variety of cognitive neuroscience phenomena. In the first phase of this study, we explored the changes in EEG-reconstructed rsFC in young vs. older adults, in the both the open-eyes (OE) and the closed-eyes (CE) conditions. The results showed significant differences in several rsFC network metrics in the two age groups, confirming and detailing established knowledge that aging modulates brain functional organisation. In the study’s second phase we investigated the role of rsFC architecture on cognitive performance through a time-based Prospective Memory task involving participants who monitored the passage of time to perform a specific action at an appropriate time in the future. Regression models revealed that the monitoring strategy (i.e. the number of clock checks) can be predicted by rsFC graph metric, specifically, eccentricity and betweenness in the OE condition, and assortativity in the CE condition. These results show for the first time how metrics qualifying functional brain connectivity at rest can account for the differences in the way individuals strategically handle cognitive loads in the Prospective Memory domain.

Enhancing cue salience improves aspects of naturalistic time-based prospective memory in older adults with HIV disease.

Older persons living with HIV (PLWH) disease commonly experience failures of time-based prospective memory (PM) in their daily lives. This study examined the benefits of providing strategic supports at encoding, monitoring, and cue detection for naturalistic time-based PM among older PLWH. Participants included 116 older PLWH and 48 seronegatives who completed a baseline neuropsychological evaluation (see Woods et al., 2020), including a laboratory PM experiment that paralleled the design of the current naturalistic study. The naturalistic time-based PM task required participants to press a button on a portable PM response box 4 times per day for 1 month. PLWH were randomly assigned to an unsupported control condition or to an experimental group in which strategic processing was supported at encoding (implementation intentions and visualization), monitoring (content-free cuing), and/or cue detection (auditory alarm). The seronegative participants were all assigned to the unsupported control group. In a model adjusting for age and affective disorders, PLWH who received all three supports in combination demonstrated moderately better naturalistic time-based PM accuracy as compared with PLWH controls. Both the cue detection and combination conditions were associated with markedly more precise response timing on the naturalistic time-based PM task. Supported PM accuracy as measured in the laboratory was positively associated with naturalistic PM accuracy among PLWH in the experimental groups. Providing strategic supports to enhance the cue salience of naturalistic time-based PM tasks may improve both the accuracy and timing with which older PLWH remember to perform time-based intentions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).