The age-prospective memory-paradox: an exploration of possible mechanisms

Schnitzspahn, Katharina M.; Ihle, Andreas; Henry, Julie D.; Rendell, Peter G.; Kliegel, Matthias

doi:10.1017/s1041610210001651

Cited by 114 publications

(145 citation statements)

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“…Martin 1986;Rendell and Thomson 1999;Schnitzspahn et al 2011). In contrast, age-related deficits were expected in a standard laboratory event-based PM task (Red Pencil test; Zeintl et al 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…These inconsistencies remain even if the same participants are tested in both naturalistic and laboratory settings (e.g. Schnitzspahn et al 2011;Rendell and Thomson 1999). The effect of age-related deficits in laboratory-based PM tasks and age-related benefits in naturalistic settings has been labelled the age-PM paradox (Rendell and Craik 2000; for a meta-analytic review Henry et al 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Revisiting the age-prospective memory-paradox: the role of planning and task experience

et al. 2013

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The present study aimed at investigating agerelated differences in prospective memory performance using a paradigm with high ecological validity and experimental control. Thirty old and 30 young adults completed the Dresden Breakfast task; a meal preparation task in the lab that comprises several subtasks including event-and time-based prospective memory tasks. Participants were required to plan how to perform the task. Results showed that young adults outperformed old adults: they completed more subtasks, showed better event-and time-based prospective memory performance and planning quality. In contrast, old adults adhered to their plans more closely than young adults. Further exploratory gender-specific analyses indicated that old women did not differ from young men in time-based prospective memory performance, general task performance and time monitoring in contrast to old men. Possibly, differences in experience in breakfast preparation might account for these differential findings.

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Revisiting the age-prospective memory-paradox: the role of planning and task experience

et al. 2013

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“…That is, if we had found that older adults rated their tasks as more important than young college students (the comparison group used in most studies that have demonstrated the paradox), then the results would have been in line with a motivational explanation for the age-related improved performance on naturalistic tasks, but this was not the case. Recent research by Schnitzpahn et al (2011) on possible mechanisms underlying the paradox has revealed that motivation can play a role, but the most important mechanism for predicting age benefits on the naturalistic task was lower absorption in ongoing daily tasks in older adults. Additional research on these and other possible mechanisms would be informative.…”

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confidence: 99%

Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults

Penningroth

Scott

2013

Eur J Ageing

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There has been little research on variables that affect importance ratings for real prospective memory tasks (e.g., remembering to take medications). Our primary purpose was to test a claim in the motivational-cognitive model of prospective memory, namely that prospective memory tasks highly related to a person's goals and concerns will be rated as more important. We also tested whether this relationship held in both young and older adults. A secondary purpose was to investigate age-related differences in the perceived importance of prospective memory tasks. Older adults and two younger adult groups completed a questionnaire that assessed current prospective memory tasks, their importance, and whether the tasks were related to participants' goals and concerns. As predicted, participants provided higher importance ratings for prospective memory tasks that were highly relevant to their personal goals or concerns, and this was true for both young and older adults. Task importance ratings did not differ for older adults and young college students; however, young nonstudents rated their prospective memory tasks as less important than the other two groups. In all three groups, females gave higher prospective memory task importance ratings than males. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the importance of a prospective memory task is partly determined by its goal-relatedness. This newly demonstrated link suggests important avenues for future research, including research on the mechanisms through which goals improve prospective memory performance.

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“…Both Henry et al (2004) and Uttl (2008) conclude that older adults perform worse than younger adults on time-cued prospective memory tasks in laboratory settings, and both conclude that older adults outperform younger adults in naturalistic settings (see also Kvavilashvili et al, 2013 for a shorter more recent review). Proof of the paradox for time-based tasks has also been found in studies using the same sample of participants in both the laboratory tasks and the tasks situated in everyday settings (Niedźwieńska & Barzykowski, 2012;Rendell & Thomson, 1999;Schnitzspahn, Ihle, et al, 2011). This is in contrast to some that suggest that time-based tasks should be more affected by aging than eventbased tasks, because time-based tasks require more self-initiated processes (see Gonneaud et al, 2011 for a review).…”

Section: Chapter 2 Prospective Memory and Cognitive Agingmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Some of these types of tasks are often argued to be so called naturalistic tasks, while others are considered to be non-naturalistic. The results produced from studies that included these tasks are what led to the discovery of the paradox Findings within the experimental field of prospective memory suggest that older adults perform better in real-life settings than what might be expected based on older adults' performances on standardized tests of prospective memory (known as the prospective memory and aging paradox, Aberle, Rendell, Rose, McDaniel, & Kliegel, 2010;Bailey, Henry, Rendell, Phillips, & Kliegel, 2010;Kvavilashvili, Cockburn, & Kornbrot, 2013;Kvavilashvili & Fisher, 2007;Rendell & Thomson, 1999;Schnitzspahn, Ihle, Henry, Rendell, & Kliegel, 2011). Despite the fact that older adults appear to perform better in real-life settings than what is predicted from their performance in standardized testing in laboratory there are two extensive meta-reviews (Henry, MacLeod, Phillips, & Crawford, 2004;Uttl, 2008) that partly complicate these findings.…”

Section: Chapter 2 Prospective Memory and Cognitive Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed cognition in home environments : The prospective memory and cognitive practices of older adults

Forsblad¹

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In this thesis I explore how older people make use of, and interact with, their physical environment in home and near-by settings to manage cognitive situations, specifically prospective memory situations. Older adults have in past research been shown to perform better on prospective memory in real-life settings than what findings in laboratory-like settings predict. An explanation for this paradox is that older adults has a more developed skill of using the environment for prospective memory than younger adults. However, research investigating this explanation has primarily been based on self-reports.I contribute to the understanding of this skill by doing two related things. First I introduce distributed cognition, a theoretical perspective that primarily has been used within professional and socio-technical environments, to the research field of prospective memory in everyday life. Second I present a cognitive ethnography conducted during two years across eight home, and near-by, environments and old-age retired persons, for which I have used theoretical concepts from distributed cognition to analyze observations. The analysis shows rich variations in how participants use common cultural cognitive tools, invent their own cognitive tools, deliberately and incidentally shape more or less functional spaces, make use of other physical features, orient themselves toward and make sense of cognitive resources. I complement both prospective memory and distributed cognition research by describing both the intelligent shaping and use of space. Furthermore, by taking a distributed cognitive perspective I show that prospective memory processes in home environments involve properties, and the management, of a multipurpose environment.Altogether this supports the understanding of distributed cognition as a perspective on all cognition. Distributed cognition is not a reflection of particular work practices, instead it is a formulation of the general features of human cognition. Prospective memory in everyday life can be understood as an ability persons have. However, in this thesis I show that prospective memory can also be understood as a process that takes place between persons, arrangements of space, and tools.iii

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The age-prospective memory-paradox: an exploration of possible mechanisms

Cited by 114 publications

References 27 publications

Revisiting the age-prospective memory-paradox: the role of planning and task experience

Revisiting the age-prospective memory-paradox: the role of planning and task experience

Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults

Distributed cognition in home environments : The prospective memory and cognitive practices of older adults

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