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A key neuro-cognitive function that promotes autonomy and everyday functioning in old age is prospective memory (PM), defined as the capacity to remember to carry out intentions in the future. This study aimed at understanding if non-cognitive factors of metacognition and motivation are related to event-based and time-based laboratory PM, as well as to naturalistic PM in older adults, above and beyond the influences of neuropsychological determinants. We applied regression analyses predicting individual differences in classical PM tasks, in a sample of 99 healthy older participants (aged 64–88 years). Results indicated that metacognition, measured as memory self-efficacy and perceived competence in cognitive tasks, was related to laboratory time-based PM. Consistency of interests, a motivational factor, was associated with naturalistic PM. None of the non-cognitive factors related to event-based PM. Our study underlines the importance of considering non-cognitive characteristics when evaluating PM capacity, a key component of cognitive aging.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to perform an intended action when the appropriate conditions occur. Several features play a role in the successful retrieval of an intention: the activity we are concurrently engaged in, the number of intentions we are maintaining, where our attention is focused (outward vs. to inner states), and how outstanding the trigger of the intention is. Another factor that may play a crucial role is sensory modality: Do auditory and visual stimuli prompt PM processing in the same way? In this study, we explored for the first time the nature of PM for auditory stimuli and the presence of modality-dependent differences in PM processing. To do so, an identical paradigm composed of multiple PM tasks was administered in two versions, one with auditory stimuli and one with visual ones. Each PM task differed for features such as focality, salience, and number of intentions (factors that are known in literature to modulate the monitoring and maintenance requests of PM) to explore the impact of sensory modality on a broad variety of classical PM tasks. In general, PM processing showed similar patterns between modalities, especially for low demanding prospective instructions. Conversely, substantial differences were found when the prospective load was increased and monitoring requests enhanced, as participants were significantly slower and less accurate with acoustic stimuli. These results represent the first evidence that modality-dependent effects arise in PM processing, especially in its interaction with features such as the difficulty of the task and the increased monitoring load.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex chronic disease associated with reduced cognitive functioning. Patients with SLE report cognitive symptoms, but cognitive assessment is not routine in SLE and little is known about day-to-day cognitive problems and their effect on disease management. As part of a pilot exploring the use of a cognitive functioning report prototype for shared decision-making in clinical encounters (the Approaches to Positive Patient-Centered Experiences of Aging in Lupus [APPEAL] Study), we investigated the relevance of cognitive assessments performed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox among patients with SLE.We conducted 4 focus groups, 2 with SLE patients (n = 18) and 2 with lupus providers (physicians and nurses; n = 9), addressing cognitive issues and interest in communicating about cognition. We compared how NIH Toolbox cognitive domains (episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, attention and inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility) matched with patient- and provider-identified cognitive problems and needs.Patients identified all NIH domains with rich experiential examples; providers identified fewer domains and offered less detail. An unanticipated additional domain was prospective memory (i.e., problems with remembering future actions). Use of technologic aids (e.g., smart phone alerts) was mentioned by some patients, but not providers, and represent a potential opportunity for medical care. All participants expressed interest in discussing cognition in clinic.Cognitive assessment using the NIH Cognitive Toolbox is relevant to this population, with the possible addition of a prospective memory assessment. Cognitive problems and indications of communication gaps suggest the appropriateness of more clinical communication about cognition in the SLE population.

A central tenet of the adaptive-memory framework is that memory has not merely evolved to help us relive the past but to prepare us for the future. In reciprocal social exchange, for instance, people must learn from previous experiences to approach cooperators and to avoid cheaters. In this sense, adaptive memory is inherently prospective. The present research is the first to test this central assumption of the adaptive-memory framework. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants played a Prisoner's Dilemma game and encountered cheating, cooperating, and neutral partners. The faces of these partners later reappeared during an event-based prospective-memory task. Participants showed better prospective-memory performance for cooperator and cheater faces than for neutral control faces. Multinomial processing-tree modeling served to separate the prospective component (remembering that an action needs to be performed) from the retrospective component (recognizing the target faces) of prospective memory. Superior prospective-memory performance for cooperator and cheater faces was attributable to a stronger prospective component, whereas the retrospective component remained unaffected. Experiment 3 showed that emotional descriptions of targets were ineffective in increasing prospective memory, suggesting that emotional valence alone cannot account for the prospective-memory advantage found in Experiments 1 and 2. The results suggest that cooperating with someone or being cheated by someone has a strong impact on future-oriented cognition. Enhanced prospective memory for cooperator and cheater faces may have an important function for maintaining reciprocal relationships and for avoiding cheaters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) is a neurocognitive disorder caused by severe malnutrition. KS patients typically show severe impairments in prospective memory (PM), thus, have difficulties with remembering to perform delayed intentions. The current study investigated the possible benefits of a smartwatch aid for PM tasks in patients with KS and compared its efficacy with verbal in-person reminders. Three patients participated in the present study and were asked to complete everyday PM tasks. The results of each patient were analyzed as a single-case study. The results highlight the great potential of using smartwatches as external memory aids in KS patients in everyday life.

Forgetting to perform an intended action at the appropriate future moment – i.e., prospective memory (PM) – is reported as the most frequent memory failure in our everyday life (Haas et al., 2020). In order to relieve the burden of intention maintenance in internal memory and increase the likelihood of remembering to carry out these delayed intentions, we can rely on the external environment. For instance, this may involve setting a reminder such as an alarm or calendar alert or keeping a to-do-list. The use of physical actions to create external triggers for delayed intentions is referred to as intention offloading (Gilbert, 2015a, 2015b). Despite the relevance of intention offloading behavior for everyday functioning, little research has been conducted to understand this process and its development across the lifespan. The goal of this study is to determine under which conditions reminders benefit prospective memory. A sample of younger and older adults will be asked to perform a prospective memory task and we will manipulate if and which PM component they can offload. Further details can be found in the pre-registered protocol uploaded on OSF.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, a distortion of time passage has been widely reported in association with a change in daily rhythm. However, several variables related to these changes have not been considered. The purpose of the present study was to assess the changes in dispositional mindfulness, time experience, sleep timing and subjective memory functioning. A longitudinal study was conducted on 39 Italian adults (53.85% males; 35.03 ± 14.02 years) assessing mindfulness, ad hoc questions of sleep habits during workdays and free days, chronotypes, subjective time experience, and memory functioning before (December 2019–March 2020) and during (April 2020–May 2020) the first Italian COVID-19 lockdown. Participants reported delayed sleep timing, a slowdown in the perception of the present time, a decrease of time pressure, and an increase in the feeling of time expansion/boredom. In addition to correlations between mindfulness, memory functioning, and subjective sleep duration during workdays, a mediation model showed that changes in the dispositional mindfulness determined a delay of bedtime during workdays through the mediation effect of increased feeling of time expansion/boredom. This finding highlighted the role of mindfulness in reducing the feeling of time expansion/boredom for regulating the sleep timing. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember intended actions at the appropriate time (i.e., time-based prospective memory) or the specific occurrence of an event (i.e., event-based prospective memory) in the future. Studies of prospective memory and aging have reported age related deficits in laboratory tasks, but not in naturalistic tasks outside of the laboratory. These findings are known as the age prospective memory paradox. The aim of this study is to quantify age-related differences in prospective memory by categorizing tasks not only as laboratory or naturalistic, but taking into account a more elaborated taxonomy. Furthermore, a dimensional approach that quantifies the ecological validity of the task and the context of the assessment will be examined. Finally, we plan to collect various task-related factors that might underly the age-prospective memory paradox.

The purpose of this experiment is to investigate factors which may influence prospective memory and problem solving.

BACKGROUND: A decline in the ability to perform daily intentions – known as prospective memory – is a key driver of everyday functional impairment in dementia. In the absence of effective pharmacological treatments, there is a need for developing, testing, and optimizing behavioral interventions that can bolster daily prospective memory functioning. We investigated the feasibility and efficacy of smartphone-based strategies for prospective memory in persons with cognitive impairment. METHODS: Fifty-two older adults (74.79 ± 7.20 years) meeting diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia were enrolled in a four-week randomized controlled trial. Participants were trained to use a digital voice recorder app or a reminder app to off-load prospective memory intentions. Prospective memory was assessed using experimenter-assigned tasks (e.g., call the laboratory on assigned days), standardized questionnaires, and structured interviews. Secondary dependent measures included days of phone and app usage, acceptability ratings, quality of life, and independent activities of daily living. RESULTS: Participant ratings indicated that the intervention was acceptable and feasible. Furthermore, after the four-week intervention, participants reported improvements in daily prospective memory functioning on standardized questionnaires (p

Prospective Memory (PM), the ability to remember to carry out intentions in the future, is often impaired after stroke. Little is known about rehabilitation of PM post-stroke with literature limited by small sample sizes and reliance on self-reported memory performance. Implementation intentions may make prospective remembering more automatic and follow a simple if-then structure (if X occurs, then I will do Y), focusing on the cue rather than the task. We aimed to investigate the effect of implementation intentions on PM post-stroke. Twenty-eight individuals with stroke and 27 controls were randomly allocated to a standard instruction or implementation intention condition and completed an assessment battery over two sessions. Implementation intention instructions were provided for PM tasks on the Delayed Message Task, Lexical Decision Prospective Memory Task (LDPMT), and the Virtual Reality Prospective Memory Shopping Task. The implementation intention groups performed better on all PM tasks compared to the standard instruction group, but no results reached statistical significance, likely due to the small sample size. In addition, the implementation intentions group monitored the time significantly more on the LDPMT than those in the standard instruction group.

We examined the influence of prospective memory (PM) cue focality in a sample of preschool children. Prior investigations in older populations indicated that focal targets were associated with enhanced PM performance, perhaps through more automatic retrieval processes. Importantly, this influential variable has not been thoroughly explored in younger samples. Over three test sessions, preschool children completed a memory task where they were shown a series of animals. During retrieval, participants were shown all of the animals except for one, and they had to name the missing animal. While engaged in this task, participants in the focal PM condition were instructed to remove particular animals (e.g., spider) from the game if they saw them. In the nonfocal condition, participants were told to remove any animal that was entirely one color (e.g., black) if they saw them during the game. The results demonstrated no difference in PM remembering between focal and nonfocal conditions. These results suggest that the effects of focality may not be present at the beginning stages of PM development. The implications for PM retrieval processes also are discussed.

Prospective Memory (PM) is the ability to remember to do something in the future. It is often impaired after stroke and can impact on an individual’s level of independence and daily functioning. PM tasks have been criticized for their lack of ecological validity wherein test results may not be related to actual performance in daily life. With ecological validity in mind, the Virtual Reality Prospective Memory Shopping Task (VRPMST) was designed to assess two types of PM, time- and event-based. This study aimed to examine the ecological and convergent validity of the VRPMST in comparison to an experimental (Lexical Decision PM Task) and clinical measure of PM (Cambridge PM Test). Twelve individuals with stroke and 12 controls were administered three PM measures, three neuropsychological measures, and two user-friendliness questionnaires, one for the experimental PM measure and one for the VRPMST. Individuals with stroke showed impairments in PM compared to controls on all three PM measures, particularly time-based PM. Individuals with stroke were found to monitor time significantly less than controls on both the experimental PM measure and the VRPMST. The VRPMST was found to be sensitive in measuring PM, have better ecological validity when compared to the experimental PM measure, and good convergent validity. The findings of this study have helped to clarify that PM impairment does exist after stroke, possibly due to a problem in strategic monitoring. In addition, we have demonstrated how VR technology can be used to design a measure of cognitive function commonly impaired after stroke.

Background and purpose Many persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) experience cognitive impairments, which may affect their ability to engage in physical therapy. There is limited information on how cognitive impairments are associated with PwMS' ability to participate and improve their functional outcomes. This study aimed to assess the relationship between cognitive functioning and PwMS' attendance, total goal attainment, and functional improvement following physical therapy intervention. Methods Participants (n = 45) were PwMS who participated in a larger self-management study and enrolled in physical therapy within the past 2 years. Objective cognitive functioning was examined using tests of prospective memory, retrospective memory, working memory, and processing speed, along with a self-report measure. Bivariate analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning and each physical therapy outcome (session attendance, attaining goals, and changes in functional outcome measures), followed by logistic regressions with age, education, gender, and disability level as covariates. Results Difficulty learning new verbal information was associated with a greater likelihood of "no showing" one or more of their physical therapy sessions. Reductions in working memory and processing speed were associated with PwMS not meeting all their rehabilitation goals. Despite deficits in new learning, memory, and processing speed, 85.2% of those with pre-/postscores showed improvements in at least one functional outcome measure following physical therapy intervention. Discussion and conclusions These findings demonstrate the ability for PwMS to make functional motor gains despite the presence of cognitive impairments and highlight the potential contributions of cognitive functioning on attendance and goal attainment of physical therapy intervention.Video Abstract available for more insights from the authors (see the Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at: http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A362, which includes background, methods, results, and discussion in the authors' own voices).

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to execute an intended action in the future at a certain time (e.g. remember to go on a date at a certain time; time-based PM) or in response to an specific external cue (e.g. remember to buy milk while driving home after work passing the grocery store; event-based PM). For daily functioning the correct realization of such tasks is essential (Beaver & Schmitter-Edgecombe, 2017). Research investigating PM performance across the lifespan indicate an inverted U-shaped function with an increase of PM performance across childhood and adolescence and a decline in late adulthood (e.g., Kliegel, Mackinlay, & Jäger, 2008). Prospective memory performance comprises multiple processes and can be described in four consecutive phases (Kliegel et al., 2002). First, an individual needs to form a future intention (intention formation); this phase mainly relies on planning abilities. In the second phase (intention retention), the individual must keep the intention in mind while performing other ongoing activities. The third phase (intention initiation) requires monitoring the environment to detect the cue that indicates the appropriate moment to inhibit the ongoing activity and switch to the intended action. In the fourth and final phase (intention execution), the intended action is performed. Research on the different phases indicate that executive functions and episodic (retrospective) memory are involved in successful PM performance (Einstein & McDaniel, 1990; Martin, Kliegel & McDaniel, 2003). McDaniel and Einstein (2000) have argued that efficient intention formation can improve PM performance by reducing the need for resource-intensive strategic processes. Therefore encoding strategies can lead to stronger memory traces and help improve the association between cue and action (i.e. by (mentally) pre-experiencing the context in which the intention will later be executed), which can facilitate (automatic) recall and thus improve PM performance (Paraskevaides et al., 2010). Research has identified several encoding strategies that could lead to improved PM performance. These include, for example, verbal encoding such as silent repetition of intention (e.g. Li & Wang, 2015), Episodic Future Thinking (e.g. Altgassen et al., 2015; Leitz et al., 2009; Paraskevaides et al., 2010), Mnemonic strategies such as Implementation Intention (e.g.. Chasteen et al., 2001; Cheng et al., 2015; Wieber et al., 2011), or motoric encoding strategies such as Enactment Encoding (e.g. Pereira et al., 2012, 2015). Most of these studies were conducted with adults and only a few examined school-aged children, but those who did also reported beneficial effects of encoding strategies on PM performance (Kretschmer-Trendowicz et al., 2019; Passolunghi & Brandimonte, 1995; Pereira et al., 2012, 2012; Terrett et al., 2019). For this study we will explore two promising strategies Episodic Future Thinking and Enactment Encoding. While Enactment Encoding could lead to deeper encoding of PM tasks in episodic memory due to additional storage of information in motor brain areas, Episodic Future Thinking could improve performance by reducing the demands put on executive functions following a stronger cue-context associations. Since prospective memory tasks involve both episodic memory and executive functions, part of this study is to examine which of the two strategies has a stronger effect on PM performance. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate whether, and if so which, encoding strategy is most effective in improving prospective memory performance across four age groups (children, adolescents, young and middle-aged adults).

Intention superiority effect is a phenomenon that the conception related to the intention is activated before performing intention (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993) or inhibited after the performance (Marsh, Hicks, & Bink, 1998). These two aspects of intention superiority effects have been found in separate experiments respectively. Utsumi et al. (2012) demonstrated that both aspects of intention superiority effect can be observed in within-subject design, but we were unable to replicate it using similar procedures. We therefore examine whether we can replicate Utsumi et al. (2012) using a simple lexical decision task.

Objective: Prospective Memory (PM) is the ability to complete a task at some specific point in the future without constant rehearsal. PM is noteworthy for the impact it may have on everyday functioning in patient populations, but it is difficult to assess using objective neuropsychological tests, and thus self-report has commonly been used as a measure of PM function. One problem with this method of assessment is the lack of a theoretical basis for current measures, especially in light of the many recent advances toward a theory of PM. Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are often high-functioning, but 50-72% suffer from some form of cognitive impairment, especially in cognitive domains thought to be essential to PM. The goals of the current study were to a) use a theoretically-based approach to examining PM in the MS population, using objective and subjective measures of PM; and b) assess the usefulness of a novel measure of subjective PM problems (the Prospective Memory Complaints Questionnaire (PMCQ)) in the MS population. Participants: Twenty-seven individuals with MS and twenty healthy controls, matched on distributions of gender, age, and education level. Methods: Participants underwent a series of 3 measures, which included 1) a novel self-report questionnaire (the PMCQ) assessing PM difficulties administered in an interview format; 2) a standardized, objective measure of PM (the MIST); and 3) a theoretically-based experimental PM task (the Complex Prospective Memory (CPM) task). Demographic variables, depression level, fatigue, quality of life, and level of MS symptom severity were also collected.Results: No significant between-group differences were found in performance on any of the objective and subjective measures of PM in the MS vs. HC groups. Within-groups analyses indicated that distinct factors in each group predicted objective PM (MIST) performance, and factors related to the utility of both the CPM task and the PMCQ (and the underlying theoretical model of each) were identified. Discussion: Overall, the current study demonstrated discrepant predictors of PM performance in MS and HCs, despite nonsignificant overall differences in performance when controlling for significant psychosocial and symptom severity factors. While much further research is needed to isolate the factors impacting PM performance in the MS population, the usefulness of a theoretical model of PM was demonstrated, as was the utility of examining PM using both performance-based and self-report measures.

Remembering to carry out intended actions in the future, known as prospective memory (PM), is an important cognitive ability. In daily life, individuals remember to perform future tasks that might rely on effortful processes (monitoring) but also habitual tasks that might rely on more automatic processes. The development of PM across childhood in laboratory contexts is well understood, but little is known about the social context in which children develop their PM skills in everyday life. In the current study, three hundred and one parents reported on their 3-to 11-year-old child’s PM, child’s strategy use, and on their own scaffolding of their child’s PM using the Children’s Everyday Memory Questionnaire (CEMQ; adapted from the Prospective Memory Questionnaire). Preliminary analyses showed that the PM items on the CEMQ were reliable and composed of two components (a PM and a PM strategy use subscale). Our results showed that children’s PM and use of memory strategies, as reported by their parents, increased with age. Further, more frequent parent scaffolding was related to better PM in children. These relations were also explored separately for older and younger children. Notably, parents of younger, 3-to 6-year-olds reported scaffolding them more frequently with age, while parents of older, 7-to 11-year-olds reported scaffolding them less frequently with age. Open-ended responses revealed that parents used verbal reminders and children used external aids most frequently. Overall, parent scaffolding appears to impact children’s PM, but future research is needed to identify the causal direction of these relations.

Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to execute planned actions, and episodic future thinking (EFT), the ability to imagine future personal events, are two core aspects of future-oriented cognition. The present study aimed for the first time at examining the role of semantic memory loss in PM and EFT in a single case patient (SL) at the early stage of semantic dementia.First, we investigated various types of PM as well as episodic memory of new events using a validated ecological assessment via virtual reality. Second, we examined EFT using a temporally extended version of the TEMPau task, which measures episodic aspects of remembering the past and imagining the future taking temporal distance into account.Patient SL was deficient in semantically linked event-based PM and was unable to provide any EFT for the most distant period but was preserved in other types of PM and near and intermediate EFT.These findings provide new evidence on the role of semantic memory in PM depending on the type of intention and in EFT depending on the temporal distance mirroring autobiographical memory. Finally, they point out a specific link between PM and near EFT in future-oriented cognition.

Prospective memory involves setting an intention to act that is maintained over time and executed when appropriate. Slow wave sleep (SWS) has been implicated in maintaining prospective memories, although which SWS oscillations most benefit this memory type remains unclear. Here, we investigated SWS spectral power correlates of prospective memory. Healthy young adult participants completed three ongoing tasks in the morning or evening. They were then given the prospective memory instruction to remember to press “Q” when viewing the words “horse” or “table” when repeating the ongoing task after a 12-h delay including overnight, polysomnographically recorded sleep or continued daytime wakefulness. Spectral power analysis was performed on recorded sleep EEG. Two additional groups were tested in the morning or evening only, serving as time-of-day controls. Participants who slept demonstrated superior prospective memory compared with those who remained awake, an effect not attributable to time-of-day of testing. Contrary to prior work, prospective memory was negatively associated with SWS. Furthermore, significant increases in spectral power in the delta-theta frequency range (1.56 Hz–6.84 Hz) during SWS was observed in participants who failed to execute the prospective memory instructions. Although sleep benefits prospective memory maintenance, this benefit may be compromised if SWS is enriched with delta–theta activity.

Prospective memory (PM) tasks that impose strong demands on strategic monitoring decline more in late adulthood relative to tasks dependent on more automatic cue detection processes. This finding has proven robust to numerous manipulations, with one exception: time-based PM. However, conventional time-based tasks may inadvertently present time-related yet still event-based cues. At the same time, prior studies have failed to consider whether time-based age differences vary according to the degree of deliberate strategic processing required to access these cues. In this study, 53 younger and 40 older participants completed three time-based PM conditions in which a response had to be executed when a sand timer completed a cycle. In one condition, this timer could only be accessed by explicit, deliberate monitoring (by pressing a specific key), in a second, it could also be accessed more perfunctorily (simply by altering ones' visual focus)-and in the third, could not be accessed at all (forcing participants to rely solely on internal temporal estimation processes). Negative age differences emerged in both conditions where participants were able to access the timer, but not in the condition where the timer was hidden. These data provide novel evidence of age-related preservation in at least some aspects of the temporal processing required to support time-based PM. They also suggest that younger and older adults can and do engage in monitoring when given this option, but that only the former group may be able to benefit, even when this monitoring can be conducted relatively perfunctorily. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Research on prospective memory has paid no attention to the way in which the intentions to be remembered are framed. In two studies on time-based prospective memory, participants had to remember multiple delayed intentions framed as time rules (i.e., respond every 7 min, every 10 min) or as a series of corresponding instances (i.e., respond at Times 7, 10, 14, 20, 21, 28, 30, etc.). We appraised the effects of intention framing on intention learning, intention representation, strategies used to set the upcoming intention, cognitive load (monitoring cost), and prospective memory performance. Study 1 involved three time rules and corresponding instances. The results showed that time rules are learned faster than corresponding instances and that intention frames shaped the way intentions were mentally represented. Furthermore, the rule frame was associated with a more cognitively demanding incremental planning strategy to establish the upcoming intention, whereas the instance frame promoted the serial recall of intentions. Study 2 replicated the results on representations and strategies with four time rules and corresponding sets of instances, and it showed better prospective memory performance following the instance frame than rule frame. Together, these studies show that two alternative ways of framing multiple delayed intentions in the same prospective memory task induce significant differences in the way intentions are represented, in the cognitive strategies used to set the upcoming intention, and in performance. Theoretical and applied implications of the results for the prospective memory field are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Prospective memory, the ability to remember to perform an intended act in the future, is a complex process that involves several stages and cognitive domains. This study sought to investigate prospective memory functioning in children with idiopathic epilepsy using tasks from the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test for Children (RBMT-C) and the Memory for Intentions Screening Test for Youth (MISTY). Performances on prospective memory task characteristics of the MISTY (i.e., cue-type, length of time delay, and response type) were also compared between and across participant groups. Healthy children (N = 26) were found to have higher overall IQ and verbal IQ scores when compared to children with epilepsy (N = 19). Group differences in prospective memory functioning were found in subtests of the RBMT-C but not on the MISTY. Lastly, while there was no significant interaction effect between the groups and MISTY task characteristics, main effects were found across participant groups; all participants performed better on event-based tasks when compared to time-based tasks and on two-minute when compared to 10-minute time delays. Overall, findings suggest potential differences in cognitive functioning, particularly in IQ and prospective memory, in children with idiopathic epilepsy, though due to differences in findings across prospective memory tasks, further research is warranted to more definitively ascertain the extent, if any, of prospective memory deficits in children with epilepsy.

Remembering to fulfill an intention at a later time often requires people to monitor the environment for cues that it is time to act. This monitoring involves the strategic allocation of attentional resources, ramping attention up more in some contexts than others. In addition to interfering with ongoing task performance, flexibly shifting attention may affect whether task-irrelevant information is later remembered. In the present investigation, we manipulated contextual expectations in event-related prospective memory (PM) to examine the consequences of flexible attention allocation on incidental memory. Across two experiments, participants completed a color-matching task while monitoring for ill-defined (Experiment 1) or specific (Experiment 2) PM targets. To manipulate contextual expectations, some participants were explicitly told about the trial types in which PM targets could (or not) appear, while others were given less precise or no expectations. Across experiments, participants’ color-matching decisions were slower in high-expectation trials, relative to trials when targets were not expected. Additionally, participants had better incidental memory for PM-irrelevant items from high-expectation trials, but only when they received explicit contextual expectations. These results confirm that participants flexibly allocate attention based on explicit trial-by-trial expectations. Furthermore, the present study indicates that greater attention to item identity yields better incidental memory even for PM-irrelevant items, irrespective of processing time.

Studies suggest that sleep benefits event-based prospective memory, which involves carrying out intentions when particular events occur. Prospective memory has a prospective component (remembering that one has an intention), and a retrospective component (remembering when to carry it out). As effects of sleep on retrospective memory are well established, the effect of sleep on prospective memory may thus be due exclusively to an effect of sleep on its retrospective component. Therefore, the authors investigated whether nighttime sleep improves the prospective component of prospective memory, or a retrospective component, or both. In a first session, participants performed an event-based prospective-memory task (that was embedded in an ongoing task) 3 minutes after forming an intention and, in a second session, 12 hours after forming an intention. The sessions were separated by either nighttime sleep or daytime wakefulness. The authors disentangled prospective-memory performance into its retrospective and prospective components via multinomial processing tree modeling. There was no effect of sleep on the retrospective component, which may have been due to a time-of-day effect. The prospective component, which is the component unique to prospective memory, declined less strongly after a retention interval filled with sleep as compared with a retention interval filled with wakefulness. A hybrid interaction suggested that refreshed attention after sleep may account for this effect, but did not support the consolidation of the association between the intention and its appropriate context as a mechanism driving the effect. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13421-021-01187-w.

Prospective memory (PM), also characterised as the memory of future intentions, can be defined as the ability to perform an intended action at an intended time in the future (Ellis, 1996). Even though a substantial number of PM tasks are executed successfully, previous literature has indicated that roughly 50% to 80% of all daily cognitive errors are associated with PM (Crovitz & Daniel, 1984; Haas et al., 2020). Both PM task specific features as well as features specific to an individual such as personality and individual differences in the tendencies of people to follow through with appointments, plans, and social obligations, are associated with PM failures (Arana et al., 2008; Cuttler & Graf, 2007; Salthouse et al., 2004). Of these individual differences, time management which can defined as “the self-controlled attempt to use time in an effective way to achieve outcomes” and procrastination behaviour has been associated with PM success (Macan et al., 2010; Mioni & Stablum, 2014; Wolters et al., 2017). Procrastination can be defined as “the intentional or unintentional postponement of the initiation and/or completion of tasks” (Fernie et al., 2016), also called active ‘voluntary’ (if intentional) and passive or ‘observed’ (unintentional) procrastination. Studies have demonstrated that personality traits and individual differences in self-regulatory behaviours such as time perspective, have been associated with increased procrastination (Kim et al., 2018; Specter & Ferrari, 2000; Steel, 2010). Even though previous literature has indicated that procrastination is frequently reported in both young adult and adult populations, little is known about the lifespan development and further research is needed to evaluate how procrastination develops across the lifespan (particularly, in older adulthood) and which moderators are associated with this development. As previously indicated, both PM and procrastination are related to abilities such as time perspective and management and personality constructs such as consciousnesses and agreeableness. Furthermore, Kim et al. (2017) found that individuals with a present-orientated time perspective engaged in more sedentary lifestyle behaviours such as internet addiction and increased tendencies of procrastination. Nevertheless, the association between PM and procrastination has still been largely unexplored so far. While there has been research about the trajectory of PM over time (see Ballhausen et al., 2019), much less is known about the development of procrastination over time. It can be hypothesized that both PM and procrastination are associated and follow a similar developmental trajectory over time given as both have been associated with cognitive abilities and individual characteristics such as personality and time perspective, which develop across the lifespan. Previous studies have indicated that PM and procrastination are associated, however the strength of the association between PM and procrastination could be moderated by age. An often-reported limitation to previous studies assessing PM and procrastination is the use of self-report measurements, such as self-report questionnaires. To increase the understanding of PM and procrastination and to assess the relationship between self-reported and behavioural measures, the current study uses both self-report and behavioural measures of PM and procrastination through the use of questionnaires and tasks.

Maintaining an intention to perform a specific action in the future, known as prospective remembering, under certain conditions is associated with performance costs in ongoing activities that are performed while maintaining the intention. While such costs in prospective memory (PM) tasks have been documented extensively (Cottini & Meier, 2020) it is currently debated, whether they represent effects of a resource-demanding monitoring for PM cues or a strategic delay of ongoing-task responses (e.g., Heathcote et al., 2015; Strickland et al., 2017). Anderson et al. (2018) assessed effects of different performance-strategy instructions on ongoing-task costs and associated parameter configurations in an accumulator model of ongoing-task performance in order to more closely map changes associated with PM monitoring and a strategic delay of ongoing-task responses. There key findings were that strategic delay instructions produced distinct and different behavioural effects and model parameter configurations than monitoring instructions, and that processes elicited by standard PM instructions more closely resembled effects of PM cue monitoring. By contrast, in a recent study, Kurtz et al. (2022) used mouse-movement tracking in a PM task in order to assess sub-process underlying ongoing-task costs during active PM tasks and aftereffects of completed intentions. Here the authors found evidence for a strategic delay of ongoing-task responses in terms of a mouse movement that was more in the middle between response options for the ongoing task and the PM task during the first half of the mouse movement. However, since this was also accompanied by response slowing during the first half, it is unclear to what extent PM monitoring may have contributed to ongoing task costs. While this discrepancy between findings may in parts be due to differences in task design and the characteristics of the measures that were employed in each study, it is unclear how specific monitoring or delay strategy instructions would affect response dynamics during PM tasks. Therefore, in the present study, we will combine these approaches and conduct a conceptual replication of the Anderson et al. (2018) study with a mouse-movement tracking paradigm that is based on the Kurtz et al. (2022) study. Specifically, we will assess response dynamics of ongoing-task and PM performance in a mouse-tracking paradigm when giving participants task either a standard PM instruction or instructions that are designed to foster either or a monitoring-based or a delay-based performance strategy. With this, we aim to a) characterize response dynamics of different strategies to perform an ongoing task during a PM task and b) assess whether response dynamics during standard PM instructions differ substantially from delay strategies or PM monitoring strategies. Additionally, we will investigate effects of such performance strategies on the processing of irrelevant distractor stimuli during a PM task and assess effects on aftereffects of responding to prospective memory cues (Meier & Cottini, 2022).

This is a preregistration of a first ambulatory assessment study we aim to run in July 2021 in this project.

We aim to clarify the relationship between acute and chronic stress and prospective memory (PM)—i.e., memory for future intentions/behaviours (Einstein & McDaniel, 1990). PM failures represent one of the most common types of everyday memory failures (Smith, Del Sala, Logie, & Maylor, 2000), with consequences varying from mild (e.g., forgetting to call a friend back) to severe (e.g., forgetting to remove a surgical clamp following surgery; Einstein & McDaniel, 2005). Given stress is a ubiquitous human experience (Baum, 1990), stress may help account for PM failures (e.g., Nater et al., 2006; Stewart, 2019). Past research examining relations between acute stress (e.g., an initial rush of energy prior to giving a speech; Lupien et al., 2007) and PM shows inconsistent results. Although some research suggests acute stress enhances PM (e.g., Glienke & Piefke, 2016; 2017), other research finds no relationship (Nakayama, Takahashi, & Radford, 2005; Walser et al., 2014), or even PM impairment (e.g., Cuttler et al., 2019). However, despite inconsistencies within the small body of literature, a recent systematic review suggested that there is a relationship, albeit a small one, between acute stress and PM (d = .10; Piefke & Glienke, 2017). Comparatively, few studies have investigated chronic stress (e.g., ongoing/unresolved stress from caring for a sick family member; Lupien et al., 2007) and PM, but those available suggest chronic stress impairs PM (e.g., Cuttler et al., 2019; Ihle et al., 2012; Stewart, 2019). Even fewer studies have considered the combined effect of both acute and chronic stress on PM, and those that do show varying results (Stewart, 2019; Stewart & McFarland, 2020). Therefore, our study aims to examine relations between acute and chronic stress in relation to PM performance.

Investigation of modality-dependent differences between an auditory and a visual version of a Prospective Memory (PM) paradigm, composed of multiple PM tasks in which features such as focality and number of intentions are modulated.

Right now, people from around the world are all experiencing the outbreak of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic which has been shown to increase worry and perceived (chronic) stress. This could have a negative impact on their cognitive functioning which could have devastating consequences in some scenarios. For example, a health care worker forgetting to administer medication to a patient could result in the death of the patient. Cognitive functioning is an essential ability of various mental processes, such as prospective memory and working memory that allow people to carry out daily activities and solving problems in their everyday lives and in their jobs. Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to perform delayed intentions in the future (Einstein & McDaniel, 1990), such as taking medication at a scheduled time and returning a book. While working memory (WM) refers to the ability to hold and update a certain amount of information in mind temporarily while executing cognitive tasks (Cowan, 2014), such as remembering and responding to the information that was said during a conversation. This online study aims to investigate the relationship between quality of life, experienced stress, resilience and cognitive functioning (PM and WM) during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. The study will involve answering some questionnaires assessing quality of life, resilience and perceived stress and some questions on demographic background and their lives during the pandemic. Participants will complete two blocks of a two-back working memory task, the first block is their baseline performance and the second block is after the stress induction (i.e. watching a short news video related to the development of the current pandemic around the globe and its potential consequences). The second block will also comprise an embedded prospective memory task.

The purpose of this project is to understand how vigilance and memory impact remembering to fulfill a future intention with a specific emphasis on missing persons searches. To understand the role of vigilance and memory, we will manipulate whether the intention to search for a missing person is in working memory at the beginning of the search and we will manipulate which task participants prioritize (i.e., missing persons search, ongoing task, or both). We will examine whether personality, vigilance, and working memory are related to missing person search performance.

Time based prospective memory describes the ability to remember to execute an intention at a predefined future time point. This study will be addressing the question of how the personal value of a prospective memory intention affects the likelihood of its fulfilment. To investigate this, I developed a design that includes a word-picture-matching task as an ongoing task. Participants will be shown two words and then have to decide whether the highlighted word matches the picture presented afterwards. Participants perform this task for 30 min and gain/loose points for every correct/incorrect response. As prospective memory intention, participants have to remember to press the space bar and type-in a word every 7 min. In doing so, they can gain additional points (either 5 or 15 depending on the experimental group they were assigned to). A third group will perform the ongoing task alone. The main dependent variables are the ongoing task response speed and accuracy as well as the intention fulfilment rate and response speed. Participants can call a screen clock by pressing an additional key at any time while they perform the task. Clock checking is the only possibility to check how much time has elapsed and whether it is time to execute the prospective memory task and will thus also be considered an important dependent variable reflecting prospective memory time monitoring.

Exploring how completion of a future intention is influenced by the accessibility and expectation of a reminder.

We investigated the effects of mood induced in the lab on two types of PM tasks. This repository contains a wide dataset ("Dataset.sav"), with data at the participant level, and a long dataset ("DataAll.csv"), with data at the measurement level. The "Main Analysis.R" is the script containing the main analysis.

Motivational and emotional changes across adulthood have a profound impact on cognition. In this registered report, we conducted an experimental investigation of motivational influence on remembering intentions after a delay (prospective memory; PM) in younger, middle-aged, and older adults, using gain- and loss-framing manipulations. The present study examined for the first time whether motivational framing in a PM task has different effects on younger and older adults��� PM performance (N = 180; age range: 18���85 years) in a controlled laboratory setting. Based on lifespan theories of motivation, we assumed that the prevention of losses becomes more relevant with increasing age: We expected that older adults show relatively higher PM performance in a task with loss-related consequences following PM failure than in a task in which successful PM leads to gains. The opposite pattern of performance was expected for younger adults. The findings suggest that the relevance of reward and positive gain-related consequences for successful remembering appears to decrease with age. As hypothesised, a motivational framing �� age interaction indicated that age differences in memory performance were smaller with loss-related than gain-related consequences, supporting a loss-prevention view on motivated cognition.

Research into planning in naturalistic settings is limited in comparison to its laboratory-based counterpart, which hinders the investigation of how age, planning, and ecological validity interact. The present study investigated planning in the naturalistic context of remembering to vote at a polling station in a general election. Surveys were distributed the day after the 2017 UK general election, and participants reported on how they had planned to remember to go and vote. Whilst the majority of participants were motivated and successfully remembered to vote, the findings showed large variation in the extent and type of plans that participants made. The main finding was that increasing age predicted less detailed planning. In addition, a large proportion of participants formed ‘activity-based’ intentions to vote in contrast to the ‘event-based’ and ‘time-based’ intentions commonly researched in laboratory studies of delayed intentions. Future directions for planning research in light of these findings are discussed.

People have difficulty sighting missing persons, partially because people’s limited cognitive resources are required for searching. As a result, people sometimes do not devote resources to searching. This research will examine whether empathy increases the resources devoted to searching and search performance. We will manipulate the amount of empathy felt toward a formerly missing person and measure willingness to volunteer to search for missing people in general and actual search performance. We hypothesize that participants induced to feel empathy will indicate more willingness to search, be more likely to make a sighting, and put more effort toward searching than those not induced to feel empathy. If empathy increases search effort and performance, it could be induced in actual missing persons cases to increase recovery rates.

Human volition can be defined as the extent to which actions are generated by internal processes, such as intentional states, or as a response to external dictated instructions. Whether actions are voluntary influence the cognitive process of action generation and perception of action. A less explored dimension is the extent to which the intention to do the voluntary action is formed immediately before the action or is a delayed intention formed further in advance of the action. In addition, it is unknown if the distinction between freely chosen actions versus externally dictated actions also has a cognitive relevance for delayed intentions similar to immediately realized intention. In the present study, we compare the difference between freely formed intentions and intentions fixed by external instructions in a prospective memory task. In prospective memory, the intention to act on a cue is stored in memory and recalled when the cue is encountered in an ongoing filler task. We examined if there would be a difference between free and fixed delayed intention on retrieval of the delayed intention by modeling the responses using a Bayesian hierarchical drift-diffusion model. From the model, we compared differences in diffusion rate and decision threshold for free and fixed intentions in the prospective memory task. Comparison of the estimated model parameters for the free and fixed intentions showed evidence against differences between free and fixed conditions in the prospective memory task. The results suggest that once an intention is encoded in memory, it no longer makes a cognitive difference at retrieval if it was initially formed freely or was fixed.

Retrospective memory errors are seen as, simply, failures of one's memory. However, prospective memory errors may be seen as failure of one's character (Munsat, 1966). In the current study, we will investigate how children's memory errors are perceived by adults based on their ratings of 7 trait words: capability, competency, conscientiousness, friendliness, intelligence, kindness, and trustworthiness, as well as how at fault they were for the error and how likely they are to repeat that error based on the child’s age: 4 or 10 years old, the domain of their memory error: academic and social, and the type of memory error: prospective or retrospective. We also investigate if the amount of experience with children per week and disruptions to their lives made by the COVID-19 virus impacts those ratings.

Event-based prospective memory (PM) involves carrying out intentions when specific events occur and is ubiquitous in everyday life. It consists of a prospective component (rememberingthatsomething must be done) and a retrospective component (rememberingwhatmust be done andwhen). Subjective sleep-related variables may be related to PM performance and an attention-demanding prospective component. In two studies, the relationship of subjective sleepiness and subjective sleep quality with both PM components was investigated with a laboratory PM task and separation of its components via Bayesian multinomial processing tree modeling. In Study 1, neither component of PM was related to naturally occurring subjective sleepiness or sleep quality. In Study 2, sleepiness was experimentally increased by placing some participants in a supine body posture. Testing participants in upright vs. supine posture affected neither PM component. However, body posture moderated the relationship between subjective sleep quality and the prospective component: In supine posture, subjective sleep quality tended to be more positively related to the prospective component. Overall, neither subjective sleepiness nor subjective sleep quality alone was related to PM.

People have difficulty sighting missing persons, partially because people’s limited cognitive resources are required for searching. As a result, people sometimes do not devote resources to searching. This research will examine whether empathy increases the resources devoted to searching and the time spent studying missing persons posters. We will manipulate the amount of empathy felt toward a missing person and measure willingness to volunteer to search for missing people as well as the duration that participants' spend studying the missing person's poster. We hypothesize that participants induced to feel empathy will indicate more willingness to search, and spend more time studying the poster compared to those not induced to feel empathy. If empathy felt towards a specific missing person improves search behaviors, then newscasters or police officers could work to invoke empathy toward a missing person during news coverage to increase recovery odds.

Since our memory capabilities change as we get older, the ability to accurately monitor and control our remembering and the fulfilment of delayed intentions has important theoretical and practical implications. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of metacognition for age differences in prospective memory. The current project aims at investigating one of the possible mechanisms that guide metamemory, namely the reference point used when estimating one’s own memory. Further details can be found in the pre-registered protocol uploaded on OSF.

In daily life, people sometimes use external aids such as setting an alarm to complete time-based prospective memory (PM) tasks successfully. We will investigate how delay time (i.e. participants were instructed to wait before pressing the spacebar), metacognition, and clock visibility would influence the decision about setting reminders.

Supporting Online Information

Objective: To identify the available measures to assess prospective memory (PM) abilities, to describe their content and to quantitatively summarize the effects of various diseases on PM depending on the type of assessment. Method: Three databases (PsycInfo, PsycArticles and PubMed) were searched up to June 2019 to identify the existing PM measures. The identified PM measures were classified according to the type of assessment: test batteries, single-trial procedures, questionnaires and experimental procedures. The characteristics and psychometric properties were presented. PM performance were compared between patients with various diseases and controls depending on the type of assessment. Results: Most of the 16 measures identified evaluated both event- and time-based tasks, were linked to functional outcomes, showed empirical evidences regarding validity and reliability and provided parallel versions. To a slightly lesser extent, few measures provided normative data, translations/adaptation into another language, cutoff scores for diagnostic purposes, qualitative scoring, parallel version and external aids during the test. Compared to healthy controls, patients had significantly poorer performances when PM was assessed with experimental procedures. Heterogeneous data precluded the interpretation of a summary effect for test batteries, single-trial procedures and questionnaires. Planned subgroup analyses indicated consistent PM impairment for patients compared to controls for three test batteries. However, PM complaints did not differ between patients and controls. Conclusions: These results suggest that the use of PM test batteries and experimental procedures are relevant for detecting performance variations in diverse clinical populations. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.