Relationship of cognitive strategy use to prospective memory performance in a diverse sample of nondemented older adults with varying degrees of cognitive complaints and impairment

Although older adults typically have better performance on prospective memory (PM) tasks carried out in naturalistic settings, a paucity of research directly assesses older adults’ use of compensatory strategies on such tasks. The current study investigates external memory strategy use during performance of a clinical PM test that features both short-term (in laboratory) and long-term (out of laboratory) subtasks (i.e., the Royal Prince Alfred Prospective Memory Test – RPA-ProMem. Nondemented, community-dwelling older adults (n = 214; mean age = 80.5; 68.2% female; 39.7% non-white) with mild cognitive impairment, subjective cognitive decline, and healthy controls completed the RPA-ProMem while external strategy use was permitted and recorded. Overall, participants utilized external strategies 41% of the time on the RPA-ProMem. Increased utilization of external memory strategies was significantly associated with better PM performance. Additionally, better performance on executive functioning tasks was associated with increased use of external memory strategies. Results are discussed in relation to how memory strategy use can be enhanced to improve everyday memory ability in older adults at risk for dementia.     

Commission errors of active intentions: the roles of aging,cognitive load,and practice

Performing an intended action when it needs to be withheld, for example, when temporarily prescribed medication is incompatible with the other medication, is referred to as commission errors of prospective memory (PM). While recent research indicates that older adults are especially prone to commission errors for finished intentions, there is a lack of research on the effects of aging on commission errors for still active intentions. The present research investigates conditions which might contribute to older adults’ propensity to perform planned intentions under inappropriate conditions. Specifically, disproportionally higher rates of commission errors for still active intentions were observed in older than in younger adults with both salient (Experiment 1) and non-salient (Experiment 2) target cues. Practicing the PM task in Experiment 2, however, helped execution of the intended action in terms of higher PM performance at faster ongoing-task response times but did not increase the rate of commission errors. The results have important implications for the understanding of older adults’ PM commission errors and the processes involved in these errors.     

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.     

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ): factorial structure, relations to global subjective memory ratings, and Swedish norms

The factorial structure of the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ; Smith et al., 2000) was examined in a Swedish population based sample (N= 540, age range; 35-90 years). Concurrent validity was assessed by relating PRMQ to global ratings of memory. Confirmatory factor analyses of the PRMQ items indicated a superior fit of a three-factor model, with prospective and retrospective memory as orthogonal factors and episodic memory as a common factor. Furthermore, the PRMQ scales correlated with the global ratings of memory, suggesting that each rating contributed with unique variance in predicting PRMQ scores. Given differences in levels of complaints as compared with prior research (Crawford et al., 2003) norms for the Swedish version are provided. In conclusion, the present findings extend earlier work by providing additional support for the construct and concurrent validity of the PRMQ scales.     

诱发负性情绪时人际情绪调节与个体情绪调节对前瞻记忆的影响

依据在情绪调节过程中大量存在的人际互动现象,首次明确提出人际情绪调节概念,并采用以前瞻记忆成绩为因变量的前后衔接、递进的两阶段实验模式研究其与个体情绪调节对缓解负性情绪影响的差异。结果表明：诱发的负性情绪会干扰双任务前瞻记忆;在高认知负载情境下,人际情绪调节对这种干扰的调节效果显著优于个体情绪调节。这说明从理论上确认人际情绪调节概念具有合理性,从实证上探讨了这种调节方式可能更有效地调节负性情绪对认知资源的占用,从而有助于扩展情绪调节领域的研究视角,并推进对其作用机制的研究     

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

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。     

焦虑情绪和年龄因素对前瞻记忆成绩影响的研究

本研究使用了嵌入焦虑量表和前瞻记忆自评问卷的前瞻记忆测验材料．对85名初中学生和152名大学生分别进行测试。结果发现,不同水平的焦虑情绪对前瞻记忆没有显着影响．但对前瞻记忆自我评价影响显着。从年龄因素上看,大学生的前瞻记忆成绩高于初中学生。     

前瞻记忆的字形、语音TAP效应研究

本研究采用单因素实验设计,以30名大学生为被试,基于双重任务范式,考察了前瞻任务为材料驱动的情况下,前瞻记忆语音、字形适当迁移加工(transfer—appropriate processing,TAP)效应。结果发现：TAP效应对前瞻记忆的辨别力指标和传递效率的影响达到了显著性水平,而对于前瞻记忆判断标准的影响未达到显著水平。     

Intention stability assessed using residual change scores moderates the intention-behaviour association: a prospective cohort study

Intention stability is considered to be one of the key pre-requisites for a strong association between intention and behaviour. It has been claimed, however, that studies examining the moderating impact of intention stability may be invalid, as they have relied on statistically inferior methods. Residual change scores have been suggested as a more appropriate method of measuring change (or lack thereof) in constructs. The aim of the current study, therefore, is to test whether intention stability, calculated using residual change scores, moderates the intention-physical activity behaviour association. A total of 163 participants (124 women, 39 men) completed questionnaires online at three time points separated by 14 day intervals. The moderating impact of intention stability was assessed using multiple linear regression followed up using simple slope analyses to identify the direction of any effect. The interaction of intention and intention stability was found to significantly improve the overall model fit. Intentions had a stronger positive association with behaviour when intentions were more stable than when they were more unstable. However, sensitivity analyses revealed that the association was not robust and reduced to non-significant with the removal of potential multivariate outliers. Future research should use residual change scores as the preferred method of assessing intention stability.