Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging

Abstract

BackgroundRegularity effect can affect performance in prospective memory (PM), but little is known on the cognitive processes linked to this effect. Moreover, its impacts with regard to aging remain unknown. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine regularity effect in PM in a lifespan perspective, with a sample of young, intermediate, and older adults.Objective and designOur study examined the regularity effect in PM in three groups of participants: 28 young adults (18–30), 16 intermediate adults (40–55), and 25 older adults (65–80). The task, adapted from the Virtual Week, was designed to manipulate the regularity of the various activities of daily life that were to be recalled (regular repeated activities vs. irregular non-repeated activities). We examine the role of several cognitive functions including certain dimensions of executive functions (planning, inhibition, shifting, and binding), short-term memory, and retrospective episodic memory to identify those involved in PM, according to regularity and age.ResultsA mixed-design ANOVA showed a main effect of task regularity and an interaction between age and regularity: an age-related difference in PM performances was found for irregular activities (older < young), but not for regular activities. All participants recalled more regular activities than irregular ones with no age effect. It appeared that recalling of regular activities only involved planning for both intermediate and older adults, while recalling of irregular ones were linked to planning, inhibition, short-term memory, binding, and retrospective episodic memory.ConclusionTaken together, our data suggest that planning capacities seem to play a major role in remembering to perform intended actions with advancing age. Furthermore, the age-PM-paradox may be attenuated when the experimental design is adapted by implementing a familiar context through the use of activities of daily living. The clinical implications of regularity effect are discussed.

The Practice Effect on Time-Based Prospective Memory: The Influences of Ongoing Task Difficulty and Delay

“…In previous studies related to practice effect of TBPM, the number of participants at each level ranged from 15 to 36 (Hu and Feng, 2013; Rose et al, 2015; Blondelle et al, 2016; Waldum et al, 2016). But a larger number of participants could reduce the influence of random errors and made the experimental results more reliable (Drazen et al, 2016).…”

“…Repeated training for specific prospective memory task can also effectively improve the prospective memory performance (Yip and Man, 2013; Blondelle et al, 2016). This phenomenon is defined as the practice effect on prospective memory in the present study.…”

“…To date, several studies focused on the practice effect on TBPM. Two of them found that the performance of regular TBPM tasks (which appeared more than five times) was better than that of irregular TBPM tasks (which only appeared once) in both younger and the older adults (Hu and Feng, 2013; Blondelle et al, 2016). Another study found that the activation of cerebral cortex associated with TBPM decreased and showed plasticity after repeated training for TBPM tasks (Rose et al, 2015).…”

The Cognitive Mechanism of the Practice Effect of Time-Based Prospective Memory: The Role of Time Estimation

“…We first address whether the practice effect of TBPM exists. At present, some studies found that repeated TBPM tasks performed significantly better than occasional ones (Hu and Feng, 2013; Rose et al, 2015; Blondelle et al, 2016; Waldum et al, 2016). However, there is currently no research exploring its cognitive mechanism.…”

Prospective memory evaluation in aging: new tools and methods

“…The first paper, by Blondelle et al [5], is very informative on the role of regularity on PM throughout life. Moreover, this paper emphasizes the need to conduct an integrative and complete cognitive assessment, and not just to assess PM by itself.…”