We develop a laboratory paradigm for studying prospective memory and examine whether or not this type of memory is especially difficult for the elderly. In two experiments, young and old subjects were given a prospective memory test (they were asked to perform an action when a target event occurred) and three tests of retrospective memory (short-term memory, free recall, and recognition). From the perspective that aging disrupts mainly self-initiated retrieval processes, large age-related decrements in prospective memory were anticipated. However, despite showing reliable age differences on retrospective memory tests, both experiments showed no age deficits in prospective memory. Moreover, regression analyses produced no reliable relation between the prospective and retrospective memory tasks. Also, the experiments showed that external aids and unfamiliar target events benefit prospective memory performance. These results suggest some basic differences between prospective and retrospective memory.

Prospective memory situations involve forming intentions and then realizing those intentions at some appropriate time in the future. An interesting feature of most prospective remembering is that recollection of the intended action occurs without an explicit request to attempt retrieval, and we present two views on how this type of remembering can be accomplished. One could strategically monitor the environment for the presence of the target event, or one could rely on anticipated environmental conditions more or less automatically reinstating the intended action. We present data supporting both views and argue that people use multiple approaches for solving the problem of retrieving an intention (prospective memory) after a delay. Moreover, we suggest that the extent to which prospective remembering is supported by relatively automatic processes (versus strategic resource-demanding monitoring) and the probability with which prospective memory is likely to be successful when relying on automatic processes varies as a function of the characteristics of the prospective memory task, target cue, ongoing task, and individual. We argue that the complexity of the empirical ®ndings can best be understood by appealing to this multiprocess view of prospective memory.

Theoretically, prospective memory retrieval can be accomplished either by controlled monitoring of the environment for a target event or by a more reflexive process that spontaneously responds to the presence of a target event. These views were evaluated in Experiments 1-4 by examining whether performing a prospective memory task produced costs on the speed of performing the ongoing task. In Experiment 5, the authors directly tested for the existence of spontaneous retrieval. The results supported the multiprocess theory (M. A. McDaniel & G. O. Einstein, 2000) predictions that (a) spontaneous retrieval can occur and can support good prospective memory and (b) depending on task demands and individual differences, people rely to different degrees on monitoring versus spontaneous retrieval for prospective remembering.

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Past research has frequently failed to find age differences in prospective memory. This article tested the possibility that age differences would be more likely to emerge on a prospective memory task that was high in self-initiated retrieval. In the 1st experiment, participants were asked to perform an action every 10 min (a time-based task presumed to be high in self-initiated retrieval); in the 2nd experiment, participants were asked to perform an action whenever a particular word was presented (an event-based task presumed to be relatively low in self-initiated retrieval). Age differences were found with the time-based task but not with the event-based task. This pattern of age differences was again found in a 3rd experiment in which a new experimental procedure was used and the nature of the prospective memory task was directly varied. Generally, the results suggest that self-initiated retrieval processes are an important component of age-related differences across both retrospective and prospective memory tasks.

Attentional control has been conceptualized as executive functioning by neuropsychologists and as working memory capacity by experimental psychologists. We examined the relationship between these constructs using a factor analytic approach in an adult lifespan sample. Several tests of working memory capacity and executive function were administered to over 200 subjects between the ages of 18-90 years old, along with tests of processing speed and episodic memory. The correlation between working memory capacity and executive functioning constructs was very strong (r = .97), but correlations between these constructs and processing speed were considerably weaker (r's ≈ .79). Controlling for working memory capacity or executive function eliminated age effects on episodic memory, and working memory capacity or executive function accounted for variance in episodic memory beyond that accounted for by processing speed. We conclude that tests of working memory capacity and executive function share a common underlying executive attention component that is strongly predictive of higher-level cognition.Theories of cognitive control typically include an executive component that is responsible for coordinating goal-directed behavior

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ion was investigated by examining extrapolation behavior in a function-learning task. During training, participants associated stimulus and response magnitudes (in the form of horizontal bar lengths) that covaried according to a linear, exponential, or quadratic function. After training, novel stimulus magnitudes were presented as tests of extrapolation and interpolation. Participants extrapolated well beyond the range of learned responses, and their responses captured the general shape of the assigned functions, with some systematic deviations. Notable individual differences were observed, particularly in the quadratic condition. The number of unique stimulus-response pairs given during training (i.e., density) was also manipulated but did not affect training or transfer performance. Two rule-learning models, an associative-learning model, and a new hybrid model with associative learning and rule-based responding (extrapolation-association model [EXAM]) were evaluated with respect to the transfer data. EXAM best approximated the overall pattern of extrapolation performance. Research on conceptual behavior has historically focused on category learning and the application of categorical knowledge. So dominant is this focus that the terms concept and category are often used interchangeably (e.g., see Bourne, 1966; Smith & Medin, 1981). It is useful to distinguish these two terms, however, because there are many types of concepts that can not be adequately characterized as categories (Busemeyer, McDaniel, & Byun, 1997; Estes, 1995). In general, concepts also pertain to causal variables (e.g., intelligence) and relationships between these variables (e.g., income is correlated with intelligence). This article investigates functions, which conceptualize the relationship between causal variables. By definition, a function maps a set of input values (called the domain of the function) into a set of output values (called the range of the function), such that each input value is assigned only one output value. In function-learning situations, the range is composed of a continuous set of response magnitudes (e.g., predict a student's GPA on the basis of IQ scores). In category learning, on the other hand, outputs consist of discrete and nominal response categories (e.g.,