Aging and prospective memory: the role of working memory and monitoring processes

Effect of Emotion on Prospective Memory in Those of Different Age Groups

The effect of emotion on prospective memory on those of different age groups and its neural mechanism in Chinese adults are still unclear. The present study investigated the effect of emotion on prospective memory during the encoding and retrieval phases in younger and older adults by using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the behavioral results, a shorter response time was found for positive prospective memory cues only in older group. In the ERP results, during the encoding phase, an increased late positive potential (LPP) was found for negative prospective memory cues in younger adults, while the amplitude of the LPP was marginally greater for positive prospective memory cues than for negative prospective memory cues in older adults. Correspondingly, younger adults showed an increased parietal positivity for negative prospective memory cues, while an elevated parietal positivity for positive prospective memory cues was found in older adults during the retrieval phase. This finding reflects the increased attentional processing of encoding and the more cognitive resources recruited to carry out a set of processes that are associated with the realization of delayed intentions when the prospective memory cues are emotional. The results reveal the effect of emotion on prospective memory during the encoding and retrieval phases in Chinese adults, modulated by aging, as shown by a positivity effect on older adults and a negativity bias in younger adults.

Revisiting the Age-Prospective Memory Paradox Using Laboratory and Ecological Tasks

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to perform a planned action at a future time. Older adults have shown moderate declines in PM, which are thought to be driven by age-related changes in the prefrontal cortex. However, an age-PM paradox is often reported, whereby deficits are evident in laboratory-based PM tasks, but not naturalistic PM tasks. The key aims of this study were to: (1) examine the age-PM paradox using the same sample across laboratory and ecological settings; and (2) determine whether self-reported PM and cognitive factors such as working memory and IQ are associated PM performance. Two PM tasks were administered (ecological vs. laboratory) to a sample of 23 community-dwelling older adults (M_age = 72.30, SD_age = 5.62) and 28 young adults (M_age = 20.18, SD_age = 3.30). Participants also completed measures of general cognitive function, working memory, IQ, and self-reported memory. Our results did not support the existence of the age-PM paradox. Strong age effects across both laboratory and ecological PM tasks were observed in which older adults consistently performed worse on the PM tasks than young adults. In addition, PM performance was significantly associated with self-reported PM measures in young adults. For older adults, IQ was associated with time-based PM. These findings suggest that the age-PM paradox is more complex than first thought and there are differential predictors of PM performance for younger and older adults.

How Does Performing Demanding Activities Influence Prospective Memory? A Systematic Review

This paper is the first systematic review on the role of ongoing task load in prospective remembering, which was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Forty articles published between 1995 and 2020 were included. They evaluated prospective memory (PM) performance (i.e., the ability to remember to execute a delayed intention) in adult samples aged between 19 and 50 years old when the PM cue appeared under cognitively demanding conditions. The results revealed that people are more likely to fail to remember to perform a delayed intention at the appropriate circumstances or time in the future when their cognitive resources are taxed by demanding ongoing activities. We conclude the review by highlighting that the degree of working memory and executive resources seems to account for some of the discrepant findings and by proposing directions for future research.

Prospective memory under acute stress: The role of (output) monitoring and ongoing-task demands

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to postpone retrieval and execution of intended actions until the appropriate situation (PM cue) has come, while engaging in other ongoing activities or tasks. In everyday live we often perform PM tasks in stressful situations. While it has been shown that acute stress does not impair PM-cue identification and intention retrieval, little is known about acute stress effects on PM performance and memory for having performed an action (output monitoring) under varying ongoing-task demands. Here we investigated this in eighty healthy participants who performed event-based PM tasks during low- and high-demanding ongoing working memory tasks after having undergone either a standardized stress induction (Maastricht Acute Stress Test) or a standardized control protocol. Successful stress induction in the stress group compared to the no-stress group was confirmed by increased salivary cortisol, an indicator of stress-related hypothalamus-pituitaryadrenal axis activity, throughout the event-based PM tasks. Nevertheless, not-only PM-cue identification but also output monitoring remained fully intact after stress induction. The absence of these effects was independent of ongoing-task demands. Nonetheless, we replicated recent findings of a stress-induced reduction in performance cost of monitoring for PM-cue occurrences. Taken together our findings suggest that acute stress alters PM monitoring by enhancing selective attention, decreasing PM response thresholds or by shifting performance towards more automatic processes in PM, while not affecting PM-cue identification and output monitoring.

Associations between Prospective and Retrospective Subjective Memory Complaints and Neuropsychological Performance in Older Adults: The Finger Study

OBJECTIVES

Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are among the key concerns in the elderly, but their role in detecting objective cognitive problems is unclear. The aim of this study was to clarify the association between SMCs (both prospective and retrospective memory complaints) and neuropsychological test performance in older adults at risk of cognitive decline.

METHODS

This investigation is part of the FINGER project, a multicenter randomized controlled trial aiming at preventing cognitive decline in high-risk individuals. The cognitive assessment of participants was conducted at baseline using a modified neuropsychological test battery (NTB). SMCs were evaluated with the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) in a sub-sample of 560 participants (mean age, 69.9 years).

RESULTS

Having more prospective SMCs was associated with slower processing speed, but not with other NTB domains. Retrospective SMCs were linked to poorer function on NTB total score, processing speed, and memory. Executive function domain was not associated with any PRMQ ratings. Depressive symptoms and poor quality of life diluted the observed associations for NTB total score and memory. However, the association between PRMQ and processing speed remained even after full adjustments.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that self-reported memory problems, measured with PRMQ, are associated with objectively measured cognitive performance. Such complaints in healthy elderly people also seem to reflect reduced mental tempo, rather than memory deficits. Slowing of processing speed may thus be negatively related to memory self-efficacy. It is also important to consider affective factors among those who report memory problems. (JINS, 2018, 24, 1099-1109).

The interplay of intention maintenance and cue monitoring in younger and older adults' prospective memory

The retention phase of a prospective memory (PM) task poses different challenges, including demands to store or maintain an intended action and to realize the right moment for action execution. The interplay of these processes in younger and older adults has not been explored so far. In this study, the authors examined the impact of maintenance load and task focality on PM in 84 younger and in 83 older adults. Results indicated that PM performance and ongoing task response times were strongly affected by maintenance load and age. However, a focality effect only emerged when maintenance load was low but not when attentional resources were deployed for maintaining a more demanding intention. These findings suggest that maintenance and monitoring requirements compete for similar attentional resources. Furthermore, maintenance load may affect postretrieval processes through its impact on working-memory resources, which can restrain the typical advantage of focal over nonfocal PM tasks.

Influence of Ongoing Task Difficulty and Motivation Level on Children's Prospective Memory in a Chinese Sample

Prospective memory (PM) is the process associated with the task of realizing delayed intentions in the future. Researchers distinguish two types of PM, namely time-based PM (tbPM) and event-based PM (ebPM). Experiment 1 investigated the developmental trajectory of 3- to 5-year-old preschool children’s PM ability, and the occurrence of delayed retrieval (children execute the PM task in a larger window of opportunity) in both tbPM and ebPM tasks. Results revealed that the 5-year-old children outperformed the 3- and 4-year-old children in PM. Moreover, delayed retrieval was more likely to occur in tbPM task than in ebPM task. In Experiment 2, the influence of ongoing task (OT) difficulty on PM performance was investigated with a sample of 5-year-old children. Results revealed no significant effect of OT difficulty on PM performance. In Experiment 3, we improved children’s motivation level to complete the OT, then explored the influence of OT difficulty on children’s PM performance. Results revealed that the effect of OT difficulty on PM performance became significant after increasing the children’s motivation to complete the OT. These results provide insights into the mechanism of attentional resource allocation in PM tasks and have crucial educational and social implications.

Cognitive and neural plasticity in older adults' prospective memory following training with the Virtual Week computer game

Prospective memory (PM) – the ability to remember and successfully execute our intentions and planned activities – is critical for functional independence and declines with age, yet few studies have attempted to train PM in older adults. We developed a PM training program using the Virtual Week computer game. Trained participants played the game in 12, 1-h sessions over 1 month. Measures of neuropsychological functions, lab-based PM, event-related potentials (ERPs) during performance on a lab-based PM task, instrumental activities of daily living, and real-world PM were assessed before and after training. Performance was compared to both no-contact and active (music training) control groups. PM on the Virtual Week game dramatically improved following training relative to controls, suggesting PM plasticity is preserved in older adults. Relative to control participants, training did not produce reliable transfer to laboratory-based tasks, but was associated with a reduction of an ERP component (sustained negativity over occipito-parietal cortex) associated with processing PM cues, indicative of more automatic PM retrieval. Most importantly, training produced far transfer to real-world outcomes including improvements in performance on real-world PM and activities of daily living. Real-world gains were not observed in either control group. Our findings demonstrate that short-term training with the Virtual Week game produces cognitive and neural plasticity that may result in real-world benefits to supporting functional independence in older adulthood.

Prospective memory training in older adults and its relevance for successful aging

In research on cognitive plasticity, two training approaches have been established: (1) training of strategies to improve performance in a given task (e.g., encoding strategies to improve episodic memory performance) and (2) training of basic cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, inhibition) that underlie a range of more complex cognitive tasks (e.g., planning) to improve both the training target and the complex transfer tasks. Strategy training aims to compensate or circumvent limitations in underlying processes, while process training attempts to augment or to restore these processes. Although research on both approaches has produced some promising findings, results are still heterogeneous and the impact of most training regimes for everyday life is unknown. We, therefore, discuss recent proposals of training regimes aiming to improve prospective memory (i.e., forming and realizing delayed intentions) as this type of complex cognition is highly relevant for independent living. Furthermore, prospective memory is associated with working memory and executive functions and age-related decline is widely reported. We review initial evidence suggesting that both training regimes (i.e., strategy and/or process training) can successfully be applied to improve prospective memory. Conceptual and methodological implications of the findings for research on age-related prospective memory and for training research in general are discussed.

Prospective memory impairment and executive dysfunction in prefrontal lobe damaged patients: is there a causal relationship?

BACKGROUND

The prospective memory (PM) construct is aimed at capturing cognitive operations involved in the successful accomplishment of delayed intentions. It is generally agreed that PM impairment occurs in patients with prefrontal lobes damage.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate if there is a causal role of a deficit of executive abilities (failures of planning, set-shifting, selective attention, or working memory) over the PM impairment.

METHODS

We report a detailed investigation of PM and executive abilities in two patients with posttraumatic damage to prefrontal lobes who complained from a reduced compliance with appointments and daily routines.

RESULTS

Laboratory tests confirmed a difficulty in fulfilling delayed intentions in response to the occurrence of critical events and elapsed time. In one patient, PM impairment was associated with poor performance on tests investigating planning, working memory, and mental shifting. The other patient performed in the normal range on all executive tests.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite the frequent claim of a dependence of PM deficits from executive dysfunction, the reported cases demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case. The results are discussed in the light of current hypotheses relating PM impairment to other deficits that commonly occur as a result of damage to the prefrontal lobes.

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.