The source of adult age differences in event-based prospective memory: A multinomial modeling approach.

Abstract

Event-based prospective memory involves remembering to perform an action in response to a particular future event. Normal younger and older adults performed event-based prospective memory tasks in 2 experiments. The authors applied a formal multinomial processing tree model of prospective memory (Smith & Bayen, 2004) to disentangle age differences in the prospective component (remembering that you have to do something) and the retrospective component (remembering when to perform the action) of prospective memory performance. The modeling results, as well as more traditional analyses, indicate age differences in the resource-demanding prospective component.

Learning is impaired by activated intentions

“…Although it is true that in past demonstrations participants holding an intention produced slower RTs on the ongoing task, they nevertheless were generally as accurate on that task as control participants who did not hold an intention. Of 20 or so experiments reporting ongoing task accuracy, in only two has it been found that having an intention reduces accuracy (see Einstein et al, 2005;Smith & Bayen, 2006). In the current case, we found that one consequence of holding an intention was to reduce free recall anywhere from 11% to 32%, depending on the intention.…”

The role of shifting, updating, and inhibition in prospective memory performance in young and older adults.

“…Conceptually, it should be noted that the revealed influence of shifting on PM is also in line with assumptions from the PAM theory (Smith, 2003;Smith & Bayen, 2004), which proposes that successful performance of the prospective component of PM involves shifting between processes related to the ongoing task and processes related to evaluating responses to the environment on the periphery of our attentional focus. This theory is especially relevant when discussing the importance of shifting for PM in aging, as Smith and Bayen (2006) could show that age differences in PM can be traced back to impaired performance in the prospective component in older adults. However, inhibition ability reached the highest ␤ weight and therefore emerged as the most powerful predictor.…”

“…In terms of theory development, therefore, the present results make an important contribution to the refinement of the assumptions proposed, for example, by the multiprocess theory of PM , as they suggest that not a broad construct but rather specific facets of controlled attention play an important role for age effects in PM. Together with early suggestions by Maylor (1996), and more recent conclusions from Smith and Bayen (2006) on the importance of shifting between the ongoing and the PM task that receive clear empirical support in the present data, the present study may offer an initial empirical basis for possible specifications of those conceptual frameworks and recent process models theoretically linking specific EF to specific 6 A possible limitation of the present results due to the specificity of the chosen cognitive tasks was especially suggested by one reviewer for the working memory measures. Yet, while this is indeed possible, both tasks represent established indicators of working memory.…”

Age effects in prospective memory performance within older adults: the paradoxical impact of implementation intentions

“…Some studies reported significant age effects (e.g. Maylor et al 2002;Smith and Bayen 2006;West and Craik 2001;Zimmerman and Meier 2006), while others failed to obtain age effects (e.g. Cherry and Plauche 2004;Marsh et al 2007;Reese and Cherry, 2002).…”