Existing laboratory paradigms of prospective memory instruct subjects to remember to perform a single, isolated act at an appropriate point in the experiment. These paradigms do not completely capture many everyday complex prospective memory situations in which a series or set of delayed actions is planned to be executed in some subsequent period of time. Weadapted a laboratory paradigm within which to study these prospective memory processes, and we investigated age-related influences on these prospective memory processes. Age-related declines were found in the planning, initiation, and execution of the set of tasks. In contrast, there were no age differences in plan retention or in the fidelity with which the plan was performed.Memory for activities to be performed in the future, such as remembering to take medication or remembering to give a colleague a message, is a pervasive real-world memory task that has recently begun to attract the attention ofnumerous researchers (see, e.g., Brandimonte, Einstein, & McDaniel, 1996). (In keeping with the literature, we will term this type of memory prospective memory.) In the laboratory paradigms that have been developed to investigate prospective memory, subjects typically are busily involved in performing a cover activity and must remember on their own to perform a previously instructed prospective memory task, either once or several times (e.g., to press a designated key on a computer keyboard). In these types of experiments, the focus is on the processes and factors, including aging, that influence how subjects remember to perform a single, isolated act at the appropriate point during the experimental session (Einstein &

Only few studies have addressed the issue of task importance in prospective memory. Most of them, but not all, have shown that perceived task importance does improve prospective memory performance. However, there is little understanding of (1) the conditions under which importance of the prospective memory task makes a difference in performance and (2) the mechanisms by which perceived task importance has an effect on prospective memory performance. The present study reports two experiments that manipulate task importance in a time-based and an event-based prospective memory paradigm. Results show that importance has an effect on the time-based but not on the event-based task. Further analyses of the performance in the cover tasks as well as the monitoring behaviour indicate that importance improves prospective memory to the degree the task requires the strategic allocation of attentional resources.

Studies of age differences in event-based prospective memory indicate wide variation in the magnitude of age effects. One explanation derived from the multiprocess framework proposes that age differences depend on whether the cue to carry out a prospective intention is focal to ongoing task processing. A meta-analysis of 117 effect sizes from 4,709 participants provided evidence for this view, as age effects were greater when the prospective cue to the ongoing task was nonfocal compared with when it was focal. However, the results only support a weaker but not a stronger prediction of the multiprocess framework, as age impairments were reliably above zero for both types of retrieval cues.

Recent studies suggest that working memory training may benefit older adults; however, findings regarding training and transfer effects are mixed. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of a process-based training intervention in a diverse sample of older adults and explored possible moderators of training and transfer effects. For that purpose, 80 older adults (65-95 years) were assigned either to a training group that worked on visuospatial, verbal, and executive working memory tasks for 9 sessions over 3 weeks or to a control group. Performance on trained and transfer tasks was assessed in all participants before and after the training period, as well as at a 9-month follow-up. Analyses revealed significant training effects in all 3 training tasks in trained participants relative to controls, as well as near transfer to a verbal working memory task and far transfer to a fluid intelligence task. Encouragingly, all training effects and the transfer effect to verbal working memory were stable at the 9-month follow-up session. Further analyses revealed that training gains were predicted by baseline performance in training tasks and (to a lesser degree) by age. Gains in transfer tasks were predicted by age and by the amount of improvement in the trained tasks. These findings suggest that cognitive plasticity is preserved over a large range of old age and that even a rather short training regime can lead to (partly specific) training and transfer effects. However, baseline performance, age, and training gains moderate the amount of plasticity.

Prospective memory performance shows a decline in late adulthood. The present article examines the role of 3 main executive function facets (i.e., shifting, updating, and inhibition) as possible developmental mechanisms associated with these age effects. One hundred seventy-five young and 110 older adults performed a battery of cognitive tests including measures of prospective memory, shifting, updating, inhibition, working memory, and speed. Age effects were confirmed in prospective memory and also obtained in shifting, updating, and inhibition. Yet, facets of executive control differently predicted prospective memory performance: While inhibition and shifting were strong predictors of prospective memory performance and also explained age differences in prospective memory, updating was not related to prospective memory performance across adulthood. Furthermore, considering executive function measures increased the amount of explained variance in prospective remembering and reduced the influence of speed. Working memory was not revealed to serve as a significant predictor of prospective memory performance in the present study. These findings clarify the role of different facets of controlled attention on age effects in prospective memory and bear important conceptual implications: Results suggest that some but not all facets of executive functioning are important developmental mechanisms of prospective memory across adulthood beyond working memory and speed. Specifically, inhibition and shifting appear to be essential aspects of cognitive control involved in age-related prospective memory performance.

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The present study examines the relationship between prospective memory performance and executive functioning. The four phases of the prospective memory process -intention formation, intention retention, reinstantiation of the intention, and intention execution -are assumed to require different amounts of executive processing, the most of which being demanded in the phases of intention formation and intention execution. At present, though, it is still unclear whether, and to which extent, prefrontal executive systems are involved in different kinds of prospective memory tasks, as some findings suggest that prospective memory might rather rely on non-strategic processes unlikely to depend on prefrontal executive systems. Therefore, this study focuses on the following questions: (a) to which degree does executive functioning predict prospective memory performance in different standard prospective memory tasks and, furthermore, are certain executive measures better predictors than others; (b) are age-related effects in different prospective memory measures due to individual differences in executive functioning and (c) do age-related differences in prospective memory exist that are not explained by individual differences in executive functioning. In a sample of 80 adults (20-80 years), we applied four instruments to measure prospective memory: a traditional single-task paradigm, two more complex tasks -one timebased and one event-based, and a highly complex multi-task paradigm. We further assessed a broadly defined construct of executive functioning, using several standard neuropsychological tests. Results showed that executive functioning did not predict performance in the simple single-tasks paradigm. However, executive functioning, but not age, predicted performance in the two more complex standard tests of prospective remembering, and both executive functioning and age predicted performance in the most complex paradigm. In sum, the obtained data underline the assumption that frontal/executive functions are related to prospective memory performance across a range of prospective paradigms. It also seems 3 clear that age differences in prospective memory performance partially depend on age-related individual differences in frontal/executive functions. Appreciation is expressed to Sonja Barth for experimental assistance, and to Caroline Moor for helpful comments on a prior version of the manuscript. THE INVOLVEMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS AbstractThe present study examines the relationship between prospective memory performance and executive functioning. The four phases of the prospective memory process -intention formation, intention retention, reinstantiation of the intention, and intention execution -are assumed to require different amounts of executive processing, the most of which being demanded in the phases of intention formation and intention execution. At present, though, it is still unclear whether, and to which extent, prefrontal executive systems are involved in different kinds of prospective memor...