Development of prospective memory: tasks based on the prefrontal-lobe model.

This study investigated the development of prospective memory using tasks based on the prefrontal-lobe model. Three groups each of 30 children, adolescents, and young adults were compared on prospective-memory performance using ongoing tasks with two levels of cognitive demand (low and high), and two levels of importance (unstressed and stressed) of remembering prospective cues. The Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), Stroop Color Word Interference Test, and Tower of London were also used to assess relationships between prospective memory and prefrontal-lobe functions. The children remembered fewer prospective cues than either the adolescents or adults, but the adolescents and adults remembered equally well. This trend increased significantly as the cognitive demand of the ongoing tasks increased. However, stressing or not stressing the importance of remembering made no difference to prospective-memory performance. Performance on the SOPT and Stroop Colour Word Interference predicted performance on the high- but not on the low-demand condition. These findings implicate the maturation of the brain's prefrontal region in the development of prospective memory.     

Prospective Memory and Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Effects of Cognitive Demand

This study investigated the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on prospective memory. Fourteen children and 14 adolescents with TBI were compared with 25 and 23 noninjured children and adolescents, respectively. Based on a prefrontal model, the cognitive demand on the ongoing component of a prospective-memory task was manipulated. Overall, those with TBI had poorer prospective-memory performance than their noninjured peers. Performance was worse in a high cognitive-demand condition than a low, and younger children performed worse than adolescents. Decreases in performance from the low- to high-demand conditions were not significantly different between the two children's groups but were between the two adolescents' groups. Furthermore, the age and injury effects were reflected in the performances on executive function tests: the Self-ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), and the Stroop Color Word Interference Test. The Tower of London (TOL), which did not produce age or injury effects, was nevertheless found to be an important predictor of performance on the high-demand task in those with TBI. Although previous research has demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance in children with TBI, this study attempted to explain why this might occur, specifically that the prefrontal regions might be implicated.     

Prospective memory and pediatric traumatic brain injury: effects of cognitive demand.

This study investigated the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on prospective memory. Fourteen children and 14 adolescents with TBI were compared with 25 and 23 noninjured children and adolescents, respectively. Based on a prefrontal model, the cognitive demand on the ongoing component of a prospective-memory task was manipulated. Overall, those with TBI had poorer prospective-memory performance than their noninjured peers. Performance was worse in a high cognitive-demand condition than a low, and younger children performed worse than adolescents. Decreases in performance from the low- to high-demand conditions were not significantly different between the two children's groups but were between the two adolescents' groups. Furthermore, the age and injury effects were reflected in the performances on executive function tests: the Self-ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), and the Stroop Color Word Interference Test. The Tower of London (TOL), which did not produce age or injury effects, was nevertheless found to be an important predictor of performance on the high-demand task in those with TBI. Although previous research has demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance in children with TBI, this study attempted to explain why this might occur, specifically that the prefrontal regions might be implicated.     

绝对重要性和认知负荷影响基于事件的前瞻记忆

操作前瞻记忆任务的重要性的方式有两种,研究发现相对重要性会造成进行中任务的损耗,而绝对重要性的研究较少且结果不尽一致,这种差异可能与进行中任务占用认知资源的情况有关。我们使用绝对重要性的指导语来操纵前瞻记忆任务的重要性高或者低,并且以Stroop任务作为进行中任务,来考察绝对重要性和认知资源占用的交互影响。结果发现,在进行中任务一致条件下,绝对重要性的增高促进了进行中任务的完成;而不一致条件下,则会阻碍进行中任务的完成。这说明,进行中任务的认知资源变化与前瞻记忆任务重要性对进行中任务的影响有着交互调节作用。     

背景任务刺激间的时距对前瞻干扰效应的影响

前瞻记忆是指形成和保持一个意向直到合适的情境或时间再执行的一种记忆任务。由于在执行背景任务的过程中保持和提取前瞻意向, 使成功执行前瞻记忆任务与加工背景任务之间存在着相互影响。保持前瞻记忆意向对背景任务的反应时和正确率有影响的现象称之为前瞻干扰效应。本研究通过操纵背景任务刺激间时距的两个实验, 考察了背景任务刺激间时距长度对时间性前瞻记忆和事件性前瞻记忆干扰效应量的对比关系的影响。结果发现随着背景任务刺激间时距缩短, 两类前瞻记忆干扰效应量的对比关系发生了变化, 且在背景任务刺激间时距长度不同的情况下执行时间性前瞻记忆任务时, 被试查看时钟的策略也有差异。提示了时间性前瞻记忆任务与事件性前瞻记忆任务认知加工机制上的不同。     

Prospective memory in young and older adults: the effects of ongoing-task load

Prospective memory involves remembering to perform intended actions in the future. Previous work with the multinomial model of event-based prospective memory indicated that adult age-related differences in prospective-memory performance were due to the prospective (not the retrospective) component of the task (Smith & Bayen, 2006 , Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 623). However, ongoing-task performance was also lower in older adults in that study. In the current study with young and older adults, the difficulty of the ongoing task was manipulated by varying the number of colors per trial to create easier and harder versions of the ongoing task for each age group. The easier version included 2 colors per trial for older adults and 4 colors for young adults. The harder version included 4 colors for older adults and 6 colors for young adults. By adjusting the ongoing-task difficulty, older adults were able to perform the ongoing task as well or better than the young adults. Analyses with the multinomial model revealed that making the ongoing task easier for older adults (or more difficult for young adults) did not eliminate age-related differences in prospective-memory performance and the underlying prospective component.     

Drive level effects on tasks of narrow and broad attention

Easterbrook (1959) has predicted that (a) performance on tasks involving the use of a wide range of cues will be impaired under high-drive conditions and that (b) performance on tasks requiring the use of only a narrow range of cues will be facilitated under such conditions.

Using the Porteus Maze Test, relatively clear evidence was obtained to support the first prediction. Using the Stroop Colour Word Interference Test some evidence was obtained in support of the second prediction.     

Do preschoolers remember what to do? Incentive and external cues in prospective memory

Prospective memory, which involves remembering to perform an action at a future time, is used frequently in daily life. Few researchers, however, have studied this type of memory with children. The present study examined and compared 3- and 5-year-olds' performance on naturalistic and computer-based prospective memory tasks. The effects of incentive and external cues on memory performance were examined along with the relationship between prospective and retrospective memory. The results indicated that 5-year-olds demonstrated greater prospective memory performance than did 3-year-olds and neither incentive nor external cues consistently improved performance. Relationships between performance on the naturalistic and computer tasks varied with age. In contrast to the adult literature, younger children's prospective and retrospective memory performances were related. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

When remembering the past suppresses memory for future actions

Remembering planned actions at the correct time in the future is an integral component of prospective cognition. Recent studies on future remembering have led to suggestions that prospective cognition might be based on past experience. To test this hypothesis, we focused on retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), which usually indicates that remembering past events suppresses memory for related but different past events. The current study assessed RIF in two kinds of event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks using either focal or non-focal cues for ongoing tasks. Participants studied six members from each of eight taxonomic categories and then practiced recalling three of the six members from four of the eight categories using category-stem cues. This retrieval practice suppressed the detection of non-practiced members of the practiced categories during the PM task with non-focal cues (Experiment 1) but not with focal cues (Experiment 2). The results suggest that recall of certain items inhibits the function of the others as PM cues, but only if the PM task does not largely share its processing with the ongoing task.     

“Going episodic”: collaborative inhibition and facilitation when long-married couples remember together

Two complementary approaches to the study of collaborative remembering have produced contrasting results. In the experimental “collaborative recall” approach within cognitive psychology, collaborative remembering typically results in “collaborative inhibition”: laboratory groups recall fewer items than their estimated potential. In the cognitive ageing approach, collaborative remembering with a partner or spouse may provide cueing and support to benefit older adults’ performance on everyday memory tasks. To combine the value of experimental and cognitive ageing approaches, we tested the effects of collaborative remembering in older, long-married couples who recalled a non-personal word list and a personal semantic list of shared trips. We scored amount recalled as well as the kinds of details remembered. We found evidence for collaborative inhibition across both tasks when scored strictly as number of list items recalled. However, we found collaborative facilitation of specific episodic details on the personal semantic list, details which were not strictly required for the completion of the task. In fact, there was a trade-off between recall of specific episodic details and number of trips recalled during collaboration. We discuss these results in terms of the functions of shared remembering and what constitutes memory success, particularly for intimate groups and for older adults.     

Age-related changes in event-related prospective memory performance: a comparison of four prospective memory tasks

The primary purpose of the study was to identify event-based prospective-memory tasks that provide sensitive and reliable tools for assessing effects of normal aging in prospective-memory performance. Four prospective-memory tasks were selected from the literature or were newly developed, with the tasks differing on various dimensions that, for theoretical reasons or based on previous evidence, might determine task sensitivity to age effects on prospective-memory performance: perceptual saliency of prospective target events, frequency of occurrence of prospective target events, complexity of prospective-memory instructions, and provision of feedback after prospective-memory errors. Two of the four tasks yielded large and robust age effects on prospective-memory performance. Correlational analyses suggested that these age effects on prospective-memory performance were mediated, at least in part, by a reduced ability of older adults to maintain prospective intentions in a highly activated state and not by age effects on basic mental speed alone.     

On the relationship between effort toward an ongoing task and cue detection in event-based prospective memory

In recent theories of event-based prospective memory, researchers have debated what degree of resources are necessary to identify a cue as related to a previously established intention. In order to simulate natural variations in attention, the authors manipulated effort toward an ongoing cognitive task in which intention-related cues were embedded in 3 experiments. High effort toward the ongoing task resulted in decreased prospective memory only when the cognitive processing required to identify the cue was similar to the cognitive processing required to complete the ongoing activity. When the required processing was different for the 2 tasks, cue detection was not affected by manipulated effort, despite there being an overall cost to decision latencies in the ongoing tasks from possessing the intention. Resource allocation policies and factors that affect them are proposed to account for ongoing vs. prospective memory task performance.     

Whoops, I did it again: commission errors in prospective memory

Prospective memory research almost exclusively examines remembering to execute an intention, but the ability to forget completed intentions may be similarly important. We had younger and older adults perform a prospective memory task (press Q when you see corn or dancer) and then told them that the intention was completed. Participants later performed a lexical-decision task (Phase 2) in which the prospective memory cues reappeared. Initial prospective memory performance was similar between age groups, but older adults were more likely than younger adults to press Q during Phase 2 (i.e., commission errors). This study provides the first experimental demonstration of event-based prospective memory commission errors after all prospective memory tasks are finished and identifies multiple factors that increase risk for commission errors.     

The role of metacognition in prospective memory: Anticipated task demands influence attention allocation strategies

The present study investigates how individuals distribute their attentional resources between a prospective memory task and an ongoing task. Therefore, metacognitive expectations about the attentional demands of the prospective-memory task were manipulated while the factual demands were held constant. In Experiments 1a and 1b, we found attentional costs from a prospective-memory task with low factual demands to be significantly reduced when information about the low to-be-expected demands were provided, while prospective-memory performance remained largely unaffected. In Experiment 2, attentional monitoring in a more demanding prospective-memory task also varied with information about the to-be-expected demands (high vs. low) and again there were no equivalent changes in prospective-memory performance. These findings suggest that attention–allocation strategies of prospective memory rely on metacognitive expectations about prospective-memory task demands. Furthermore, the results suggest that attentional monitoring is only functional for prospective memory to the extent to which anticipated task demands reflect objective task demands.     

Dismantling the “age–prospective memory paradox”: The classic laboratory paradigm simulated in a naturalistic setting

Previous research has identified “the age–prospective memory paradox”—that adult ageing results in reliably poorer performance on laboratory-based tasks of prospective memory (PM), but improved performance on such tasks carried out in real-life settings. We hypothesized that even in their everyday environment, older adults might be worse at PM tasks that are triggered during an experimenter-generated ongoing activity. The present study used a task that captured the key features of the classic laboratory paradigm, but which was completed in a setting that met key criteria to be considered naturalistic. In their everyday setting, participants' PM was assessed, with the cue to remember occurring either (a) during their day-to-day activities, or (b) during an experimenter-generated ongoing task. The results confirmed previous naturalistic findings, in showing that older adults (n = 28) exhibited better PM than their younger counterparts (n = 65) when prompted during their everyday activities. However, older adults were also then subsequently less likely to show effective PM during experimenter-generated ongoing activity. Reproducing the paradox within a single dataset, these data indicate that older adults can effectively act on intentions during everyday activities, but have difficulty in prospective remembering during experimenter-generated ongoing tasks.     

进行中任务变化对轻度认知功能障碍者基于事件前瞻记忆的影响

本实验采用2被试组别(MCI组、正常老年组) × 3进行中任务变化(无变化、顺序变化、随机变化)被试间设计探究进行中任务变化对轻度认知功能障碍者基于事件前瞻记忆的影响。结果表明：(1)轻度认知功能障碍者的前瞻记忆成绩显著低于正常老年人的前瞻记忆成绩; (2)进行中任务变化对两组被试前瞻记忆和进行中任务的反应时影响存在显著差异。进行中任务变化越大, 轻度认知功能障碍者完成前瞻记忆和进行中任务的反应速度越慢; 而正常老年被试则不受影响。研究支持前瞻记忆策略加工的理论观点, 认为执行功能损伤可能是导致轻度认知功能障碍者前瞻记忆失败的主要原因。     

Prospective memory and ageing paradox with event-based tasks: A study of young,young-old,and old-old participants

Research on ageing and prospective memory—remembering to do something in the future—has resulted in paradoxical findings, whereby older adults are often impaired in the laboratory but perform significantly better than younger adults in naturalistic settings. Nevertheless, there are very few studies that have examined prospective memory both in and outside the laboratory using the same sample of young and old participants. Moreover, most naturalistic studies have used time-based tasks, and it is unclear whether the prospective memory and ageing paradox extends to event-based tasks. In this study, 72 young (18–30 years), 79 young-old (61–70 years), and 72 old-old (71–80 years) participants completed several event-based tasks in and outside the laboratory. Results showed that the ageing paradox does exist for event-based tasks but manifests itself differently from that in time-based tasks. Thus, younger adults outperformed old-old participants in two laboratory event-based tasks, but there were no age effects for a naturalistic task completed at home (remembering to write the date and time in the upper left corner of a questionnaire). The young and old-old also did not differ in remembering to retrieve a wristwatch from a pocket at the end of the laboratory session. This indicates that the paradox may be due to differences in ongoing task demands in the lab and everyday life, rather than the location per se. The findings call for a concentrated effort towards a theory of cognitive ageing that identifies the variables that do, or do not, account for this paradox.     

Emotional target cues eliminate age differences in prospective memory

Cue saliency is known to influence prospective memory performance, whereby perceptually or conceptually distinct cues facilitate remembering and attenuate adult age-related deficits. The present study investigated whether similar benefits for older adults are also seen for emotional valence. A total of 41 older and 41 younger adults performed a prospective memory task in which the emotional valence of the prospective memory cues was manipulated. Emotionally valenced cues increased prospective memory performance across both groups. Age deficits were only observed when neutral (but not positive or negative) prospective cues were presented. Findings are consistent with predictions that salient cues facilitate participants' prospective memory performance and reduce age-related differences, while extending the concept of saliency to include emotional valence.     

前瞻记忆后效的加工机制：对自发提取观点和抑制观点的检验

摘 要 实验1探究前瞻记忆后效的产生是否消耗认知资源,实验2进一步探究前瞻记忆后效产生过程中消耗的认知资源的去向。实验1结果显示在完成阶段,相比于基线条件,其它四种实验条件的进行中任务反应速度均较慢,实验2结果显示无论线索是否显著,前瞻记忆后效均会随着认知负荷的提高而提高。结果表明前瞻记忆后效产生过程中会消耗认知资源对原意向进行抑制。本研究支持了抑制的观点。     

The effects of ongoing task absorption on event-based prospective memory in preschoolers

The current study applied a 2 × 2 experimental design to investigate the effects of ongoing task absorption on event-based prospective memory performance of children aged 3 and 5 years. Children were required to label pictures as ongoing task but to remember to refrain from picture naming and to respond to the target cues in a different way as the prospective memory task. Two differently absorbing ongoing tasks (high absorbing scenario game task vs. low absorbing computer-based task) were administered. Results indicated that prospective memory performance of 5-year-old children was significantly better than that of 3-year-old children. Ongoing task absorption affected the ongoing task performance of preschoolers, but not overall prospective memory performance. Only the 3-year-olds were negatively affected by high ongoing task absorption, which was not the case for the 5-year-olds. The findings are discussed within the light of the multiprocess theory.