Repetition Errors in Habitual Prospective Memory: Elimination of Age Differences via Complex Actions or Appropriate Resource Allocation

ABSTRACT

A challenge in habitual prospective memory tasks (e.g., taking medication) is remembering whether or not one has already performed the action. Einstein, McDaniel, Smith, and Shaw (1998 Einstein, G. O., McDaniel, M. A., Smith, R. E. and Shaw, P. 1998. Habitual prospective memory and aging: Remembering intentions and forgetting actions. Psychological Science, 9: 284–288. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Psychological Science, 9, 284) showed that older adults were more likely to incorrectly repeat an action on habitual prospective memory tasks. Extending this research, we (a) biased participants either toward repetition or omission errors, (b) investigated whether performing a more complicated motor action can reduce repetition errors for older adults, and (c) examined participants' resource allocation to the prospective memory task. Older adults committed more repetition errors than younger adults regardless of biasing instructions when ongoing task demands were challenging (Experiment 1). Performing the more complex motor action, however, reduced repetition errors for older adults. Further, when the ongoing task was less demanding, older adults' repetition errors declined to levels of younger adults (Experiment 2). Consistent with this finding, the resource allocation profiles suggested that older participants were monitoring their output (prospective memory execution) in each trial block.     

Presentism And Absence Causation: An Exercise In Mimicry

If presentism is true, then no wholly non-present events exist. If absence orthodoxy is true, then no absences exist. I discuss a well-known causal argument against presentism, and develop a very similar argument against absence orthodoxy. I argue that solutions to the argument against absence orthodoxy can be adopted by the presentist as solutions to the argument against presentism. The upshot is that if the argument against absence orthodoxy fails, then so does the argument against presentism.     

Teaching Very Large Classes

The editor of Teaching Theology and Religion facilitated this reflective conversation with five teachers who have extensive experience and success teaching extremely large classes (150 students or more). In the course of the conversation these professors exchange and analyze the effectiveness of several active learning strategies they have employed to overcome the passivity and anonymity of the large lecture format. A major point of debate emerges that contrasts the dynamically performative and highly informed and skilled lecturer with the “wasted time and money” that results from encouraging students to participate through various active learning strategies. Other themes include the importance of story telling in the religious studies classroom, the significance of the differences between students' learning styles, and the challenge of teaching and assessing critical thinking and communication skills.     

In‐basket Validity: A systematic review

In‐baskets are high‐fidelity simulations often used to predict performance in a variety of jobs including law enforcement, clerical, and managerial occupations. They measure constructs not typically assessed by other simulations (e.g., administrative and managerial skills, and procedural and declarative job knowledge). We compiled the largest known database (k = 31; N = 3,958) to address the criterion‐related validity of in‐baskets and possible moderators. Moderators included features of the in‐basket: content (generic vs. job specific) and scoring approach (objective vs. subjective) and features of the validity studies: design (concurrent vs. predictive) and source (published vs. unpublished). Sensitivity analyses assessed how robust the results were to the influence of various biases. Results showed that the operational criterion‐related validity of in‐baskets was sufficiently high to justify their use in high‐stakes settings. Moderator analyses provided useful guidance for developers and users regarding content and scoring.     

Age-related changes in neural mechanisms of prospective memory

The capability to remember and execute intentions in the future – termed prospective memory (PM) – may be of special significance for older adults to enable successful completion of important activities of daily living. Despite the importance of this cognitive function, mixed findings have been obtained regarding age-related decline in PM, and, currently, there is limited understanding of potential contributing mechanisms. In the current study, older (N=41) and younger adults (N=47) underwent task-functional MRI during performance of PM conditions that encouraged either spontaneous retrieval (Focal) or sustained attentional monitoring (Non-focal) to detect PM targets. Older adults exhibited a reduction in PM-related sustained activity within the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and associated dorsal frontoparietal cognitive control network, due to an increase in non-specific sustained activation in (no-PM) control blocks (i.e., an age-related compensatory shift). Transient PM-trial specific activity was observed in both age groups within a ventral parietal memory network that included the precuneus. However, within a left posterior inferior parietal node of this network, transient PM-related activity was selectively reduced in older adults during the non-focal condition. These age differences in sustained and transient brain activity statistically mediated age-related declines in PM performance, and were potentially linked via age-related changes in functional connectivity between the aPFC and precuneus. Together, they support an account consistent with the Dual Mechanisms of Control framework, in which age-related PM declines are due to neural mechanisms that support proactive cognitive control processes, such as sustained attentional monitoring, while leaving reactive control mechanisms relatively spared.     

Quizzing in Middle‐School Science: Successful Transfer Performance on Classroom Exams

We examined whether learning from quizzing arises from memorization of answers or fosters more complete understanding of the quizzed content. In middle‐school science classes, we spaced three multiple‐choice quizzes on content in a unit. In Experiment 1, the class exams included questions given on quizzes, transfer questions targeting the same content, and content that had not been quizzed (control content). The quizzing procedure was associated with significant learning benefits with large effect sizes and similar effect sizes for both transfer items and identical items. In Experiment 2, quiz questions focused on definitional information or application of the principle. Application questions increased exam performance for definitional‐type questions and for different application questions. Definition questions did not confer benefits for application questions. Test‐enhanced learning, in addition to other factors in the present quizzing protocol (repeated, spaced presentation of the content), may create deeper understanding that leads to certain types of transfer. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of testing on learning of functions

Is learning of a complex functional relationship enhanced by trying to predict what output will go with a given input, as compared to studying an input–output pair? We examined learning of a bilinear function and transfer to new items outside the trained range. Subjects either saw the input–output pairs (study-only condition) or attempted to guess the output and then saw the pair (test/study condition). The total study times were equated, and motivation was enhanced with a monetary bonus. Performance was markedly better for the test/study condition, both within the trained range and in the transfer test. This benefit of testing during training was observed on a criterial test administered shortly after training. Testing has long been shown to enhance the explicit learning and retention of verbal material; our present findings reveal a novel domain for which testing can also be advantageous—that is, function learning.     

A sham drug improves a demanding prospective memory task

Every day, people rely on prospective memory--our ability to remember to perform a future action--to carry out myriad tasks. We examined how a sham cognitive enhancing drug might improve people's performance on a prospective memory task. We gave some people (but not others) the sham drug, and asked everyone to perform a high-effort prospective memory task. People who received the sham drug performed better on the prospective memory task. They also took longer to perform their ongoing task, suggesting that they increased their effortful monitoring. These results fit with research showing that suggestions can lead people to increase cognitive effort and increase memory performance.     

"Brain-Specific" Nutrients: A Memory Cure?

Contents:
Nootropics, the Aging Brain, and Neural Bases of Learning and Memory, p.13
Phosphatidylserine, p.16
Choline, p.23
Piracetam, p.24
Vinpocetine, p.26
Acetyl-L-Carnitine, p.28
Antioxidants, p.30
Future Work and More Fine-Grained Analyses of Memory, p.32
Summary and Concluding Remarks, p.34