Time-Based Prospective Memory Performance and Time-Monitoring in Children with ADHD

Abstract

The current study investigated prospective memory (PM) performance in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and controls and aimed at exploring possible underlying factors of PM performance. Twenty-two children with ADHD and 39 age- and ability-matched typically developing children performed a computerized time-based PM task. As predicted, children with ADHD had fewer correct PM responses than controls. Neither differences in overall ongoing task performance nor, remarkably, differences in overall frequency and accuracy of time monitoring were found. Exploratory analyses suggest that individual differences in time monitoring in the final interval before target times may be related to PM performance in ADHD.

Time’s up! Involvement of metamemory knowledge, executive functions, and time monitoring in children’s prospective memory performance

“…Additionally, the absence of any interaction between the participants' age and their level of expertise with the procedural task seems to confirm that, although it affects PM performance, the cognitive demand associated with the ongoing activity does not totally account for the improvement observed in time-based memory abilities with age. Moreover, stepwise regression analyses also revealed the expected positive relation between the score for strategic time monitoring and PM performance in both experimental groups (expert and novice), indicating that the use of an appropriate strategy seems to improve children's PM performance even when their resources are engaged in a cognitively demanding ongoing task (Costa et al, 2010;Mäntylä et al, 2007;Voigt et al, 2011;Voigt et al, 2014;Zinke et al, 2010).…”

“…In event-based memory tasks, the appropriate time to perform an action is indicated by an external cue whose occurrence is generally unpredictable, whereas, in time-based memory tasks, the action has to be executed at a prearranged time point in the future or after a specific period of time has elapsed. In both cases, the main barrier to success is that the prospective task must be carried out at the same time as a cognitively demanding ongoing activity; in an experimental setting, the ongoing activity might be an n-back working memory task, for example (Ellis & Kvavilashvili, 2000;Zinke et al, 2010). In this context, like adults' performance (e.g., Schnitzspahn, Stahl, Zeintl, Kaller, & Kliegel, 2013), children's PM performance is usually shown to be related to the difficulty of the ongoing task as Running head: Metamemory Knowledge and Prospective Memory 5 well as to their level of executive abilities Mackinlay, Kliegel, & Mäntylä, 2009;Mahy, Moses, & Kliegel, 2014;Ward, Shum, McKinlay, Baker, & Wallace, 2007; for a review of the involvement of executive functions in children's PM development, see Mahy, Moses, & Kliegel, in press).…”

“…In this context, like adults' performance (e.g., Schnitzspahn, Stahl, Zeintl, Kaller, & Kliegel, 2013), children's PM performance is usually shown to be related to the difficulty of the ongoing task as Running head: Metamemory Knowledge and Prospective Memory 5 well as to their level of executive abilities Mackinlay, Kliegel, & Mäntylä, 2009;Mahy, Moses, & Kliegel, 2014;Ward, Shum, McKinlay, Baker, & Wallace, 2007; for a review of the involvement of executive functions in children's PM development, see Mahy, Moses, & Kliegel, in press). In addition, time-based memory performance is also shown to be linked to participants' use of an effective time monitoring strategy (Kretschmer, Voigt, Friedrich, Pfeiffer, & Kliegel, 2013;Mäntylä, Carelli, & Forman, 2007;Voigt, Aberle, Schonfeld, & Kliegel, 2011;Voigt at al., 2014;Zinke et al, 2010). For instance, using an experimental paradigm in which children had to drive a vehicle (ongoing task) and to remember to refuel it before running out of gas (time-based memory task in which the fuel gauge served as an equivalent of the clock), Voigt et al (2011) demonstrated the involvement of strategic time monitoring in enhancing PM performance in children aged between 7 and 9 years old (for similar findings in preschool and early-school-aged children, see Kretschmer et al, 2013).…”

“…It indicates that the implementation of an appropriate strategic behavior can have a positive influence on PM, as it does on RM. Specifically, many authors assume that the best time monitoring strategy to perform time-based memory paradigms and succeed at both the ongoing activity and the PM task involves, first, making fewer time checks at the beginning of the PM interval in order to allocate cognitive resources to the ongoing task and, second, increasing the frequency of time checks at the end of the PM interval so as not to miss the PM target time (Costa et al, 2010;Voigt et al, 2011;Zinke et al, 2010). As mentioned above, the results of earlier studies reveal that children who demonstrate this strategic pattern of time monitoring also show better PM performance.…”

Future thinking instructions improve prospective memory performance in adolescents

“…For the ongoing task, participants were presented with a picture-based two-back working-memory task (for a similar procedure, see Zinke et al, 2010). Black-and-white line drawings of familiar objects from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) picture system were displayed one by one on a computer screen.…”