Prospective memory on a novel clinical task in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and subjective cognitive decline

Abstract

Despite the relevance of prospective memory to everyday functioning and the ability to live independently, prospective memory tasks are rarely incorporated into clinical evaluations of older adults. We investigated the validity and clinical utility of a recently developed measure, the Royal Prince Alfred Prospective Memory Test (RPA-ProMem), in a demographically diverse, non-demented, community-dwelling sample of 257 older adults (mean age = 80.78 years, 67.7% female) with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI, n = 18), non-amestic mild cognitive impairment (naMCI, n = 38), subjective cognitive decline (SCD, n = 83) despite intact performance on traditional episodic memory tests, and healthy controls (HC, n = 118). Those with aMCI and naMCI performed significantly worse than controls on the RPA-ProMem and its subtasks (time-based, event-based, short-term, long-term). Also, those with SCD scored significantly lower than controls on long-term, more naturalistic subtasks. Additional results supported the validity and inter-rater reliability of the RPA-ProMem and demonstrated a relation between test scores and informant reports of real-world functioning. The RPA-ProMem may help detect subtle cognitive changes manifested by individuals in the earliest stages of dementia, which may be difficult to capture with traditional episodic memory tests. Also, assessment of prospective memory can help guide the development of cognitive interventions for older adults at risk for dementia.

Association of psychological, cognitive, and functional variables with self-reported executive functioning in a sample of nondemented community-dwelling older adults

“…No participant had dementia and approximately 21% of participants had a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), suggesting a preclinical dementia condition (Petersen et al, 2001;Winblad et al, 2004). More specifically, approximately 6% had a diagnosis of amnestic MCI and 15% had a diagnosis of nonamnestic MCI (for details about classification see Rabin, Chi, et al, 2014;Rabin, Wang, Katz, & Lipton, 2014). The remaining participants were cognitively intact across neuropsychological domains, although a subset (approximately 32% of participants) presented with important self-reported and/or informant-reported complaints about their memory and other aspects of cognition (classified as subjective cognitive decline, SCD).…”

Sustaining prospective memory functioning in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A lifespan approach to the critical role of encoding.

“…Kretschmer, et al, 2014;Mahy, et al, 2014;Schnitzspahn, et al 2013); both of which are particularly vulnerable to aging and cognitive impairment, hence constituting an early and sensitive indicator of the progression of benign and abnormal cognitive compromise (cf. McDaniel, et al, 2011;Rabin, et al, 2014).…”

The Effect of Religious Priming on Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men

“…Long-term PM tasks have been generally considered to be more naturalistic or "ecologically valid" because they occur in everyday contexts where the examiner has little control over distractions or intervening task demands (Rendell & Craik, 2000). Impairments in PM have been found in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy older adult controls (HC; Blanco-Campal, Coen, Lawlor, Walsh, & Burke, 2009;Chi et al, 2014;Costa et al, 2010;Costa et al, 2011;Delprado et al, 2012;Kazui et al, 2005;Rabin, Chi, et al, 2014;Tam & SchmitterEdgecombe, 2013;Thompson et al, 2011;Troyer & Murphy, 2007). MCI has been considered to be a preclinical dementia condition marked by both objective and subjective memory (and possibly other cognitive) impairment with relative sparing of activities of daily living and no global cognitive decline (i.e., no dementia; Delprado et al, 2012;Mitchell, Arnold, Dawson, Nestor, & Hodges, 2009;Petersen et al, 2001;Winblad et al, 2004).…”

“…The current research represented an expansion of the initial Rabin, Chi, et al (2014) study and aimed to further investigate the psychometric properties of the RPA-ProMem in community-dwelling older adults. Three hypotheses were proposed.…”