Prospective Memory and Aging Prospective

Prospective Memory and Aging

Prospective Memory Theories Conflict

Prospective Memory

Prospective Memory in Older Adults

Age Prospective Memory Paradox

Problem Statement Resolved

Four Phases of Prospective Memory

Five Points Supporting Writer's Stance

PROSPECTIVE MEMORY and AGING

"Results pertaining to adult age differences in prospective memory performance are conflicting, with some studies reporting no deficits for older adults and others observing significant age-related

(Cohen, Dixon, Lindsay, & Masson, 2003, ¶ 2).

Prospective Memory Theories Conflict

Theories relating to the perspective of how an individual's memory functions, like an individual's perspective on life, can range from reasonably positive to models which are practically negative. In the book, Handbook of Communication and Aging Research, Ann O'Hanlon and Peter Coleman (2004) note that as a person moves chronologically through his life, the physical changes that occur in the individual's face and body old age become increasingly apparent. Unseen factors like a person's memory, albeit, may or may not be readily realized. "In the most positive models of memory functioning with age, slowing of memory is hypothesised to occur as a consequence of inefficient strategies of encoding and retrieval" (O'hanlon & Coleman, p. 40). This model purports that memory functioning deficits occur in the person's later life; however, it proves more positive mnemonic training and other intervention strategies can reportedly off-set those age-related deficits.

A number of pessimistic models of memory functioning in later life, albeit, suggest that a person's memory declines as he ages due to normative, irreversible, unavoidable changes in the mechanics of the individual's mind. This paper which considers both positive and negative perspectives regarding prospective memory investigates: 1) Prospective memory in general; 2) Prospective memory, specifically in older adults; 3) the meaning of the age prospective memory paradox.

Problem Statement

During the past 100 years, researchers have explored absent- mindedness, one form of a failure of prospective memory, with the number of studies devoted to understanding ways aging affects the cognitive processes and neural mechanisms which support prospective memory increasing following the study, "Normal aging and prospective memory," by Gilles O. Einstein and Mark a. McDaniel (1990). Einstein and McDaniel, who examine whether or not prospective memory proves particularly challenging for the elderly, conduct two experiments with young and old subjects and develop a laboratory paradigm for studying prospective memory. During the study, Einstein and McDaniel gave a prospective memory test to both young and old participants. When a target event occurred, the participants performed an action and "three tests of retrospective memory (short-term memory, free recall, and recognition). From the perspective that aging disrupts mainly self-initiated retrieval processes […;] large age-related decrements in prospective memory were anticipated" (Einstein & McDaniel, Abstract). Even though the participants divulged consistent age differences on retrospective memory tests, in regard to prospective memory, both experiments failed to show any age deficits.

The counterintuitive finding that age-related disparities discovered in prospective memory were not significant motivated much of the early work investigating the relationship between aging and prospective memory. In later studies, albeit, the observation of dynamic age-related prospective memory differences motivated researchers to investigate the boundary conditions under which spared and impaired prospective memory occur in older adults (Cabeza, Nyberg, & Park, 2005, p. 246). In light of contemporary considerations contributing to ongoing perceptions regarding prospective memory aging, the writer investigates the problem of whether or not aging adversely affects prospective memory.

REVIEW of RESEARCH

Prospective Memory

Declines in a person's memory functioning may involve a number of components and therefore can be explained in ways other than the aging process. "Slowing down the rate of information recall could also reflect qualitative differences or changes in priorities, an increased awareness of the complexities in the material being presented, or both" (Teri et al., as cited in O'hanlon & Coleman, 2004, p. 41). Memory involves much more than merely remembering to or not forgetting to do something as it includes "a complex process incorporating abilities to learn new information (recent memory), remember future events (prospective memory), perform familiar activities (procedural memory)" (Ibid., p. 40). Rather than actually constituting a pathology, when an older individual demonstrate signs absent- mindedness or some other form or prospective memory deficiency, an older person may not be interested a particular subject or merely bored and use the time to ponder subjects he considers more interesting.

Prospective memory constitutes remembering to carry out or complete planned; proposed; projected activities in the future, according to Matthias Kliegel, Mike Martin, Mark a. McDanie, Gilles O. Einstein, and Caroline Moor (2007) in the study, "Realizing Complex Delayed Intentions in Young and Old Adults: the Role of Planning Aids." Gene a. Brewer, Justin B. Knight, Richard L. Marsh, and Nash Unsworth (2010), all with the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, define prospective memory in the journal article, "Individual differences in event-based prospective memory: Evidence for multiple processes supporting cue detection," as the ability to remember to complete task in the future. These authors explain that the primary characteristic of prospective memory is that the retrieval of the intended action must take place without the overt appeal to remember. According to Shayne Loft, Rebecca Kearney, and Roger Remington (2008), all with the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in the study "Is task interference in event-based prospective memory dependent on cue presentation?" prospective memory (PM) refers to the tasks utilized as well as the sort of memory understood to motivate performance.

The majority of research completed in the area of prospective memory conducted in this area has investigated event-based PM, where the incident of a PM cue indicates it appropriate to carry out an intended act. "For example, & #8230;to execute the delayed intention of stopping to buy medicine during the drive home from work, PM is required to recognize the cue (pharmacy) as relevant to the intention (to buy medicine), while attention is focused elsewhere (driving)" (Loft, Kearney, and Remington, 2008, ¶ 2). Common intentions may include a person returning a phone call to a friend or co-worker after he completes a conversation with someone else or picking up a pizza on the way from work. According to Robert West (2005) in the book, Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging: Linking Cognitive and Cerebral Aging, "Prospective memory represents the realization of intentions that must be delayed over minutes, hours, or days in the absence of an external cue or prompt. Examples of Failures of prospective memory reflect one form of absent- mindedness..." (Cabeza, Nyberg, & Park, 2005, p. 246).

Current research relating to prospective memory implies that executive functions may contribute to describing performance in intricate task conditions. Conversely, a dearth of theoretical concepts does not clearly indicate which executive functions determine the performance of prospective memory. Matthias Kliegel and Mike Martin, both with the German Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, Dr. Mark a. McDaniel, University of New Mexico, and Dr. Gilles (2002), Einstein, Furman University, purport in the journal article, "Complex prospective memory and executive control of working memory: A process model," that furthermore, research may not clarify which executive functions prove critical in the development of the prospective memory process (¶ 1). As a result, Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, and Gilles maintain that prospective memory may be perceived to constitute a multi-stage process. They recommend a theoretical illustration that expands into four different phases. Figure 1 depicts these four phases of prospective memory.

Figure 1: Four Phases of Prospective Memory (adapted from Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, & Gilles, 2002).

In addition to fundamental skills like retrospective memory that motivate prospective memory performance, the process requires that the person prioritize, coordinate and sequence distinct task elements. Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, and Gilles (2002) assert that multifaceted prospective memory tasks may be presumed by the executive measures. The authors cite Neisser, a prominent researcher in prospective memory, to explain that "to remember" may stand for two daily separate cognitive processes. The first cognitive process may be for one to "remember what he/she must do" (Neisser, as cited in Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, & Gilles, Summary Section, ¶ 2). The second cognitive process may be for one to "remember what he/she has done" (Ibid.). Current literature denotes first type of remembering "as prospective memory ["remember what he/she must do"] and to the second as retrospective memory" (¶ 2). In day-to-day experiences, one generally works on a number of "subtasks" to perform well on an everyday prospective memory task. One must initially develop an intention; keeping the intention in mind while he works on continuing activities. One also must monitor his environment to instigate the action at the proper time. He has to also execute the intended action aligned to the earlier planned intent.

Prospective memory may also be understood as the development and comprehension of deferred intentions. For example, an individual taking a shower abruptly remembers that he needs to return a DVD to the video store. Instead of instantly rushing out of the shower to return the video, the individual would plan to return the DVD later in the day while out running errands. In the journal article, "An imperfect relationship between prospective memory and the prospective interference effect," M. Windy McNernev and Robert West (2007), both with the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, India, explain that returning the DVD while running errands depicts an illustration of effective prospective memory. Substantial documentation signifies that in various instances, the accessibility of one's effective memory ability or attentional resources can be vital for the comprehension of deferred intentions.

Richard L. Marsh, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, Jason L. Hicks, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Gabriel I. Cook (2006), University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, examine whether ask interference, having an intention, creates a cost to other ongoing activities. In the journal article, "Task interference from prospective memories covaries with contextual associations of fulfilling them," Marsh, Hicks and Cook report contemporary research indicates that particular intentions held over the shorter term interfere with other tasks. As the collective effect of such costs would prove prohibitively costly in everyday life, Marsh, Hicks and Cook investigate one way to potentially reduce that interference.

Ccorrelating intention fulfillment with a precise context can eradicate task interference, Marsh, Hicks and Cook (2006) find. Examining intentions linked to future contexts vs. those not related proves to be a significant investment. Marsh, Hicks and Cook (2006) explain that one vital function of memory involves storing intentions about future activities, goals and plans. In the scientific literature, everyday examples of actions termed prospective memory include "intending to refill a prescription, planning a trip to the grocery store, setting aside a future time to write, read, or work on a hobby, or forming the intention to give someone a piece of information" (Marsh, Hicks & Cook, 2006, ¶ 2).

From their study exploring the degree that a prospective memory interferes with a continuing activity, Marsh, Hicks and Cook (2006) report in some instances, uncertain conditions may stimulate task interference in contexts where interference could have potentially be avoided otherwise. Marsh, Hicks, and Cook also find:

Maintaining an intention in an active state of readiness over the longer term would seem to be prohibitively expensive in terms of its deleterious effect on ongoing activities. We hypothesized that one way to off-load this cost would be to form a very specific intention and consider the future contexts that one might be in when the next opportunity to fulfill the intention would arise. Doing so would mean that an attentional-allocation policy toward an ongoing activity would not have to be modified until a context was reached that was linked to an intention. The data from the two experiments reported here are consistent with that hypothesis. (Marsh, Hicks & Cook, 2006, General Discussion Section, ¶ 1)

More investigation needs to be completed regarding their study's focus, Marsh, Hicks and Cook (2006) propose as they find that, nevertheless, "breaks and starting new tasks serve to reset attentional-allocation policies" (General Discussion Section, ¶ 7). This explains why task interference does not occur when an intention links to a diverse context.

Focal and Nonfocal Cues

Brewer, Knight, Marsh and Unsworth (2010) assert that consideration of whether or not a person having an intention creates a cost to additional continuing activities, task interference, constitutes a current issue in the prospective memory field. Their study explores the extent that possessing a prospective memory interferes with the individual's ongoing activity. The multiprocess theory asserts that, partially depending on the specificity of the cue, various processes can be utilized to detect event-based prospective memory cues. This perspective contends that attentional processes may not necessarily depend on focal cues, while nonfocal cues mandate some type of controlled attention.

To test this theory, Brewer, Knight, Marsh and Unsworth (2010) include participants with both high and low working memory capacities; utilizing a design comparing focal and nonfocal prospective memory task. The results of this study show that a distinct difference exists between focal and nonfocal cues and how they provoke one's memory. This study determined that individuals with high working memory were able to detect nonfocal cues on a much higher basis than participants with low working memory. In some specific situations relating to apparent deficits in prospective memory, however, despite focal and nonfocal cues, an older individual may have to contend with a variety of material and/or physical limitations that may prohibit him from carrying out particular activities or actions.

Prospective Memory in Older Adults

As an individual ages, the prospect of actual or potential memory impairment functioning may serve as a significant threat for some adults. A number of theories of memory functioning into later life, with supporting evidence, suggest that aging does contribute to memory loss. "The consequence of age on the different mechanisms or neural pathways involved in these different memory systems[,] [nevertheless, remains] unclear. In total, 'despite the phenomenological and empirical reality of age-related memory loss and the breadth of attempts to explain it'" (Teri et al., as cited in O'hanlon & Coleman, 2004, p. 41), research has yet to confirm a clear understanding as to why this phenomena occurs.

In the study, "The effect of perceptual distinctiveness on the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory in young and old adults, Anna-Lisa Cohen, Roger a. Dixon, D. Stephen Lindsay, Michael E.J. Masson (2003) explain that prospective memory underlies significant daily activities like keeping an appointment, making a phone call, mailing a letter, and remembering to take medication. "Successful prospective memory performance is thought to involve two components: remembering at an appropriate moment that one must do something, and recalling what is to be done" (Dixon, Lindsay, & Masson). The prospective component constitutes "remembering at an appropriate moment that one must do something" (Ibid.). The retrospective component entails "recalling what is to be done" (Ibid). When person must remember to relate a message to a friend, for instance, successful prospective memory mandates that the friend's appearance activates the memory that a message must be related (prospective component). In addition, successful prospective memory entails that the individual remembers the message's content.

Compared to younger adults, older adults more likely reveal superior prospective remembering in naturalistic contexts with modest experimental control. Adults, however, tend to utilize everyday external memory aids like notes, which may contribute to this factor. Within laboratory contexts where memory supports like reminder notes are prohibited, however, older adults generally exhibit prospective memory deficits. Explicit task characteristics also alter age variations. Tasks that mandate a person remembers to perform an act in future circumstances without any prompts or cues, however, and that include a dissimilar (and attention demanding) ongoing activity correlate with age-related deficits. Research confirms that older adults experience particular challenges when they disengage from demanding concurrent activities (Dixon, Lindsay, & Masson, 2003).

Dixon, Lindsay, and Masson (2003) recount a study Maylor conducted with young, middle-aged, and older adults, testing their sensitivity to a prospective memory cue. Maylor instructed participants, completing an event-based prospective memory task implanted in a task, to identify the names of numerous famous faces. During the prospective memory task, participants had to mark the trial number of any individuals wearing glasses. Performance declined across age groups as the older adults only correctly identified 26% of the prospective memory cues. Maylor purports that according to the participants' self-reports, relative to other age groups, older adults appear to consider the prospective memory instructions less frequently.

A number of other properties acknowledged to affect the individual's level of recall in retrospective memory also influence prospective memory performance, including complication, relatedness, and salience. As some attention-demanding ongoing cognitive activity generally embeds prospective memory tasks, the perceptual salience of a prospective memory cue would potentially impact prospective memory performance. The recognition of that cue will more likely be successful as the target-cue proves more perceptually salient, relative to the array of other stimuli (Dixon, Lindsay, & Masson, 2003).

Dixon, Lindsay, and Masson (2003) report that a number of researchers examining the distinctiveness of prospective memory cues and ways they affect performance find that increasing the size of target pictures result in improved detection of the cue. Some researchers have also found that "presenting a cue word in upper-case letters relative to the majority of lower-case words results in superior prospective memory performance" (¶ 4). The fact that cues prove distinctive compared to existing knowledge or to the existing context, resulting in the spontaneous capture of the individual's attention, serves as a potential explanation for the phenomenon. Cue distinctiveness therefore can work to change attention from an ongoing task to the prospective cue. It can also serve to re-instantiate context and proffer a reference frame to retrieve the linked intention. Dixon, Lindsay, and Masson (2003) also consider whether the cues equivalently affect performance on the prospective component and retrospective components as well as if such cues similarly influence performance for young and older adults. As older adults may ponder prospective memory instructions less frequently than younger adults, a perceptual salience manipulation may less likely affect the prospective memory performance of older adults.

As prospective failures may relate to a low frequency of reminiscences of that intention throughout retention intervals, failures in prospective memory are perceived to transpire in response to a failure to sustain intent during the retention interval of the task. Consequently, the activation level of the depiction of an intention in consciousness may decide the receptiveness of older adults to perceptual uniqueness manipulations. If "the representation of an intention has sank below consciousness to such an extent that participants are unresponsive to even powerfully perceptually salient events, one would expect little impact of perceptual distinctiveness" (Dixon, Lindsay, & Masson, 2003, ¶ 4). Then again, perhaps manipulation orienting attention and focal processing to the target item, if the representation of an intention exists at a level accessible when the cue is presented, should affect those individuals who likely monitor less frequently.

During an investigation of recognition memory, for instance, findings revealed that the degree of perceptual similarity between targets and distracters more negatively affected older adults. Whenever "target and distractor stimuli were made distinct from each other and did not overlap, [however,] older adults' performance improved; revealing the perceptual distinctiveness befitted them. Dixon, Lindsay, and Masson (2003) explain that researchers interpreted this finding to be consistent with the concept that aging generates a recognition memory impairment, typified by increased reliance on the perceptual characteristics of stimuli. From their review of literature and the two experiments they conducted during their study, Dixon, Lindsay, and Masson report that their findings indicate when salience captures attention and stimulates the perception that "there is something to do," this in turn most enhances the detection of prospective memory cues.

Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor (2007) recognize that a number of studies demonstrate the implementation of external cues for prospective memory performance in naturalistic tasks proves beneficial. They also credit other researchers with findings from the investigation of prospective memory in neuropsychological patients with planning deficits or studies where researcher correlate planning measures with prospective memory performance. Even though some study findings differ, the majority of studies in this realm primarily support the assertion that planning ability could benefit prospective memory. Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor argue that the need exists, albeit, to investigate the impact explicit intention planning manipulations exert on delayed prospective memory performance. The authors investigated the following three diverse planning aids during their study:

1. One targeting the initiation component of the SET,

2. one targeting the switching component, and

3. one general aid to help sequencing one's plan. Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein,

and Moor, 2007, ¶ 6 )

Experiment a by Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor (2007) addresses whether intention planning, utilizing planning, enhances benefits performance on complex prospective memory tasks. This experiment found a planning-aids condition effect on both self-initiated initiation of the SET following the delay as well as within the SET on the number of self-initiated switches. The latter effect emerged only in older adults, albeit, the high performance levels the younger adults exhibited in switches may have decreased room for potential planning aids' benefits. The fact that young adults instinctively included switching-related elements in their plans may have contributed to this finding.

Regarding whether guided intention planning could possibly eliminate differences between young and older adults in prospective memory performance, Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor (2007) find that even though older adults' performance improved, the age differences in delayed prospective memory did not plainly decrease. The data do not sustain the assertion that providing planning hints to increase the preciseness of prospective memory cues or expand on when to initiate the prospective task set will adequately raise older adults' complex prospective memory performance to levels the researchers detected in young adults.

Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor (2007) find that in regard to the effects of planning condition on the contents and retention of plans, in the planning-aids condition, some participants incorporated the accessible hints into the plans; however, not every participant did so. Regarding plan recall, findings reveal that when young and old were asked to do so, both young and old, retrospectively, aided and unaided participants could recall most of their intentions. "Thus, the data underline previously reported dissociations between unpaired prospective memory performance and intact retrospective memory for the intended actions" (Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, & Moor, 2007, Discussion Section, ¶3). Despite good retrospective memory for following their plans, participants appeared to, at least to a certain extent, deviate from particular portions of their plans.

Experiment B. By Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, Einstein, and Moor (2007) analyzes participants' plans were relating to whether they actually included the provided planning aids. With respect to the initiation component, even though findings revealed a significant primary effect of planning condition, neither a significant age effect, nor a significant interaction materialized. The planning-aids condition resulted in a noteworthy planning aid effect, nevertheless, not in a relation or a primary consequence of age.

Age Prospective Memory Paradox

In addition to the prospect that age may adversely affect prospective memory, one's personality and lifestyle can also affect memory skills. The article, "Reports outline psychology research from Osaka University" (2010) reports that "the higher performance of older people in prospective memory… tasks in a naturalistic setting rather than in a laboratory setting is well-known in cognitive aging research and is called the 'age prospective memory paradox'" (Reports outline psychology & #8230;, ¶ 1). In the attempt to clarify this complex phenomenon, Gondo and colleagues, researchers in Suita, Japan, who report that a poor understanding of the paradox exists, test the contribution of candidate variables that potentially influence PM performance in older adults.

To identify potential variables relating to older adults' PM performance, the Japanese researchers conducting the study utilized the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), developed to evaluate PM and retrospective memory (RM) failure in everyday life. This extensive sample survey study verified the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the PRMQ included "young (n = 459), young-old (n = 1291) and old-old (n = 860) people" (Reports outline psychology…, 2010, ¶ 2). Results found reliability for both the PM and RM dimensions of the PRMQ in each age group. Gondo and colleagues conclude that their study efforts enhance knowledge regarding ways that the individual's lifestyle as well as personality, regardless of age, relates to his self-rated memory failures

Another study examining aging and prospective memory, conducted in Australia, reported in article, "Investigators at University of New South Wales release new data on experimental psychology" (2010), finds that older people possess more memory than their younger counterparts for day-to-day tasks. With a task that an activity generates, albeit, the younger participants responded more than the older.

The New South Wales study included the primary components of the characteristic laboratory paradigm, albeit completed the research in a setting that comprised the crucial standards to qualify naturalistic. In the participants' everyday setting, the researchers assessed their PM, providing the cue to remember taking place either "(a) during their day-to-day activities, or (b) during an experimenter-generated ongoing task" (Investigators at University…, 2010, ¶ 2). Findings from this study concur with prior naturalistic study results, revealing that when prompted during their day-to-day activities, older adults exhibit better PM than their younger counterparts. Subsequently, the study demonstrated that during experimenter-generated ongoing activity, the older adults were less likely to reveal effective PM. The single dataset study replicates the paradox, suggesting that older adults can successfully perform on intentions during daily activities, nevertheless during prospective remembering in experimenter-generated ongoing tasks, the older adults experience trouble.

The article, "Studies from Technical University Dresden, Department of Psychology update current data on neuropsychology" (2010) reports that a study with 40 younger and 40 older adults in Germany led to the conclusion that younger people have better memories but older people are more social. The study addressing the question "Are older adults more social than younger adults? Social importance increases older adults' prospective memory performance," investigates how social importance impacts prospective remembering in younger and older adults as a potential component critically contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Scientists in Germany explain that the study utilizes "a between-subjects design, 40 younger and 40 older adults worked on a time-based prospective memory task in which social importance was varied" (Studies from Technical…, ¶ 1). Findings indicate that in the prospective memory task, the younger adult participants essentially outperformed older adult participants. Conversely, albeit, in the social importance condition, compared to that of the younger counterparts older adults' prospective memory performance proved significantly superior than in the standard condition.

Research in psychology, similar to studies of the biological and social sciences on aging frequently primarily focuses decline. In the article, "Growing Old or Living Long: Take Your Pick; Research to Understand the Psychological and Emotional Processes of Aging Is Essential to Creating a Society in Which the Elderly Can Thrive and it has found it," Laura L. Carstensen (2007) reports that as a person ages his mind slows down and he becomes more likely to error when he processes information. "Declines are especially evident on tasks that require effortful processing that relies on attention, inhibition, working memory, prospective memory, and episodic memory" (Carstensen, 2007, Psychological science and longevity Section, ¶ 1).

The mind reportedly becomes less adept at perceiving old information in new ways. Memory, particularly the individual's working memory, his ability to mentally maintain multiple pieces of information while he acts on those segments of information declines as he ages. But then, the good news, according to Carstensen, includes the following:

The National Research Council report the Aging Mind: Opportunities in Cognitive Research observed that performance on laboratory tasks does not map well onto everyday functioning. The committee speculated that much of the discrepancy occurs because people spend most of their time engaged in well-practiced activities of daily routines where new learning is less critical. Research shows that in areas of expertise, age-related decline is minimal until very advanced ages.