Revisiting the Age-Prospective Memory Paradox Using Laboratory and Ecological Tasks

Abstract

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to perform a planned action at a future time. Older adults have shown moderate declines in PM, which are thought to be driven by age-related changes in the prefrontal cortex. However, an age-PM paradox is often reported, whereby deficits are evident in laboratory-based PM tasks, but not naturalistic PM tasks. The key aims of this study were to: (1) examine the age-PM paradox using the same sample across laboratory and ecological settings; and (2) determine whether self-reported PM and cognitive factors such as working memory and IQ are associated PM performance. Two PM tasks were administered (ecological vs. laboratory) to a sample of 23 community-dwelling older adults (Mage = 72.30, SDage = 5.62) and 28 young adults (Mage = 20.18, SDage = 3.30). Participants also completed measures of general cognitive function, working memory, IQ, and self-reported memory. Our results did not support the existence of the age-PM paradox. Strong age effects across both laboratory and ecological PM tasks were observed in which older adults consistently performed worse on the PM tasks than young adults. In addition, PM performance was significantly associated with self-reported PM measures in young adults. For older adults, IQ was associated with time-based PM. These findings suggest that the age-PM paradox is more complex than first thought and there are differential predictors of PM performance for younger and older adults.

Effect of multiple sclerosis and aging on prospective memory using the ecological test of prospective memory.

“…They may also have experienced anxiety related to the novelty and the technological aspect of our laboratory PM task, which may have negatively influenced their results. These results are consistent with findings in other studies that showed that older individuals obtained lower results than younger ones on laboratory-type PM tasks (Haines et al, 2020; Koo et al, 2021). It would therefore be relevant to adapt research on PM with this population by substituting the TEMP by a similar but noncomputer-dependent task.…”

Assessment of goal-directed behavior with the 3D videogame EPELI: Psychometric features in a web-based adult sample

“…(4) Multiple regression analyses identified age, gender and general intelligence as predictors of EPELI performance. Age-related impairments in PM have been observed especially in conventional PM tasks, but also in ecologically valid contexts [60], concurring with the present findings. Gender effects on PM have not received much attention, but the present gender difference favoring women is in line with other studies that have found gender effects [61].…”

Prospective memory assessment: Scientific advances and future directions

“…Another important parameter affecting age differences is the source of PM task generation: participants performed better with self-generated intentions rather than experimenter-generated actions to perform. As a result of these findings, now, the so-called age PM paradox is no longer popular and research has shifted its focus toward cognitive factors more likely to explain individual differences in PM, such as executive functions, retrospective memory or IQ ( Hainselin et al, 2011 ; Azzopardi et al, 2015 ; Koo et al, 2021 ). Research has also focused on the ecological validity of PM tasks in assessing these factors involved in PM as well as their relationship with self-report measures ( Hainselin et al, 2021 ; Sugden et al, 2021a ).…”