Control of cost in prospective memory: Evidence for spontaneous retrieval processes.

To examine the processes that support prospective remembering, previous research has often examined whether the presence of a prospective memory task slows overall responding on an ongoing task. Although slowed task performance suggests that monitoring is present, this method does not clearly establish whether monitoring is functionally related to prospective memory performance. According to the multiprocess theory (McDaniel & Einstein, 2000), monitoring should be necessary to prospective memory performance with nonfocal cues but not with focal cues. To test this hypothesis, we varied monitoring by presenting items that were related (or unrelated) to the prospective memory task proximal to target events. Notably, whereas monitoring proximal to target events led to a large increase in nonfocal prospective memory performance, focal prospective remembering was high in the absence of monitoring, and monitoring in this condition provided no additional benefits. These results suggest that when monitoring is absent, spontaneous retrieval processes can support focal prospective remembering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in social memory tasks.

College females were superior to college males in memory for 3 tasks—one life situation and 2 names-and-faces tests. A new test, the KW Memory for Names and Faces Test, demonstrated a "same-sex recall" tendency for this sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pride in group performance and group-task motivation.

This experiment tested the propositions that pride in one's group results from the members' perceptions of effective task performance of the group as a whole and is directly associated with high motivation toward the assigned task of the group. 25 3-man groups assigned to work on a simulated Air Defense task were distributed among 5 experimental conditions. The measure of task motivation was the amount of task-oriented discussion during a "break" period. "Evidence is cited supporting the hypothesis that the high group-task motivation results from a perception of interdependence among the group members with respect to the attainment of reward." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incentive effects on event-based prospective memory performance in children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury.

Prospective memory (PM) is the formation of an intention and remembering to perform this intention at a future time or in response to specific cues. PM tasks are a ubiquitous part of daily life. Currently, there is a paucity of information regarding PM impairments in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and less empirical evidence regarding effective remediation strategies to mitigate these impairments. The present study employed two levels of a motivational enhancement (i.e., a monetary incentive) to determine whether event-based PM could be improved in children with severe TBI. In a crossover design, children with orthopedic injuries and mild or severe TBI were compared on two levels of incentive (dollars vs. pennies) given in response to accurate performance. All three groups performed significantly better under the high- versus low-motivation conditions. However, the severe TBI group's high-motivation condition performance remained significantly below the low-motivation condition performance of the orthopedic injury group. PM scores were positively and significantly related to age-at-test, but there were no age-at-injury or time-postinjury effects. Overall, these results suggest that event-based PM can be significantly improved in children with severe TBI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When goals collide: The interaction between prospective memory and task switching.

The neural correlates of prospective retrieval mode, and the basis of the interaction between prospective memory (PM) and task switching, were examined using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In two experiments individuals performed pure and mixed blocks of trials where they indicated whether or not a word was a noun or a verb or contained one or two vowels based upon a cue that was presented before the target stimulus. Experiment 1 revealed that prospective retrieval mode was associated with slow wave activity over the frontal and posterior regions of the scalp that differed in topography depending upon whether the PM cues were embedded in pure or mixed blocks of trials. This experiment also revealed that the neural correlates of task set configuration, but not cue encoding, were sensitive to PM load. These data indicate that PM load may effect task switching by influencing an individual's ability to maintain multiple task sets in working memory and to efficiently implement a given task set to guide task performance. Additionally, task switching may effect PM by influencing the degree to which individuals rely on stimulus-independent and stimulus-oriented processing to support the realization of delayed intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human hippocampal activation in the delayed matching-and nonmatching-to-sample memory tasks: An event-related functional MRI approach.

The delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) and delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) memory tasks are standard tools used to probe visual recognition memory in human and nonhuman primates. Previous research indicates that structures within the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, make up a crucial memory circuit for successful performance on these tasks. In the present investigation, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine activation in the hippocampus proper during these memory tasks relative to a perceptuomotor task involving the same stimuli. The results indicate that both memory tasks elicited greater activation in the right hippocampus during the encoding phase. These findings are consistent with the work from human patients and animal studies, indicating hippocampal involvement in the DMS and DNMS tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate memory in sequential tasks.

Factors effecting the memory capacity are basic to understanding sequential tasks. The evidence indicates immediate memory is sometimes subject to decay, but that interference from interpolated items has a much larger effect. Interference effects are particularly great when the S must hold items in store while responding to previously stored material within an ongoing serial task. The ability of S to use time to reorganize the stimuli for storage works against the decay tendency. Only in rare instances does S store a pure representation of the stimulus; rather he must be viewed as an active information handler applying his knowledge of the nature of the stimulus and response to reduce his memory load. (56 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ongoing task delays affect prospective memory more powerfully than filler task delays.

The effect of delay on prospective memory (PM) is mixed. Research has typically shown that PM either decreases or remains unchanged as the time increases between intention formation and encounter with a PM cue. However, the results of one study demonstrated that PM sometimes increases with increasing delays (Hicks, Marsh, & Russell, 2000). Hicks et al. hypothesised that increasing the delay may afford an opportunity for people to spontaneously rehearse the intention, or to be reminded of the intention. In the present work, we tested delays of 6 minutes, 21 minutes, and 36 minutes. Two factors were orthogonally manipulated between-subjects. One was the duration of the filler task that came between intention formation and the beginning of the ongoing task in which PM cues were embedded. The second was the duration of the ongoing task prior to the presentation of the first PM cue. Lengthening the ongoing task delay decreased PM. However, lengthening the filler task nominally increased PM. These results suggest that delays within the ongoing task replicate the effects traditionally found in retrospective memory work. In contrast, delays between intention formation and the beginning of the ongoing task may not have straightforward effects on PM retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict's consequences: Effects of social motives on postnegotiation creative and convergent group functioning and performance.

Two studies tested the effects of social motives during negotiation on postnegotiation group performance. In both experiments, a prosocial or a proself motivation was induced, and participants negotiated in 3-person groups about a joint market. In Experiment 1, groups subsequently performed an advertisement task. Consistent with the authors' predictions, results showed that proself groups performed worse on the convergent aspects of this task but better on the divergent aspects than prosocial groups. In Experiment 2, the authors manipulated social motive and negotiation (negotiation vs. no negotiation), and groups performed a creativity task (requiring divergent performance) or a planning task (requiring convergent performance). Proself groups showed greater dedication, functioned more effectively, and performed better than prosocial groups on the creativity task, whereas prosocial groups showed greater dedication, functioned more effectively, and performed better than proself groups on the planning task, and these effects only occurred when the task was preceded by group negotiation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social and sexual motivation in the mouse.

Does a sexual encounter have reward value for a learned operant response? Ovariectomized female mice with or without estradiol replacement were trained to perform a bar-contact operant response for either male or female targets. Response rates of females with estradiol replacement did not differ from those of females without estradiol replacement or females responding for access to females. Reflexive receptive sexual behavior remained responsive to estradiol replacement. Experiment 2 demonstrated that socially isolated females would respond faster for access to a female target than when group housed. Finally, the oxytocin blocker, atosiban, reduced both operant and reflexive social behavior. These results converge on the conclusion that the operant reward value of social and sexual contact is primarily social. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focal and nonfocal prospective memory performance in very mild dementia: A signature decline.

Objective: In a recent study, performance on a certain kind of prospective memory task (PM), labeled focal PM, was sensitive to the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD; Duchek, Balota, & Cortese, 2006). This study sought to replicate and extend these findings by investigating both focal and nonfocal PM, as well as possible influences of alleles of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene. Method: Thirty-five healthy older adults and 33 adults in the very earliest stages of AD, as determined by the clinical dementia rating scale, completed both focal and nonfocal PM tasks. Performance on these tasks has been linked to qualitatively different cognitive processes (Scullin, McDaniel, Shelton, & Lee, 2010), thereby providing leverage to illuminate the specific processes that underlie PM failures in very early AD. Approximately half of the adults in each group were ApoE e4 carriers and half were noncarriers. We also obtained participants' scores on a battery of standard psychometric tests. Results: There was a significant interaction between the type of PM task and dementia status, p p2 = .12, demonstrating that the AD-related decline was more robust for focal than for nonfocal PM. Further, focal PM performance significantly discriminated between the very earliest stages of AD and normal aging, explaining variance unique to that explained by typical psychometric indices. ApoE status, however, was not associated with PM performance. Conclusion: The pronounced deficit observed in the focal PM task suggests that spontaneous retrieval processes may be compromised in very early AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The age prospective memory paradox: Young adults may not give their best outside of the lab.

Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in laboratory settings in contrast to age benefits in naturalistic settings. Various factors are assumed to account for this paradox, yet empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In 2 experiments, the present study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory task and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic task on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. For the laboratory task (Experiment 1, n = 40), we used a board game to simulate a week of daily activities and varied features of the prospective memory task (e.g., task regularity). For the naturalistic task (Experiment 2, n = 80), we instructed participants to try to remember to contact the experimenter repeatedly over the course of 1 week. Results from the laboratory prospective memory tasks indicated significant age-related decline for irregular tasks (p = .006) but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic task, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives (F     

The cost of event-based prospective memory: Salient target events.

Evidence has begun to accumulate showing that successful performance of event-based prospective memory (PM) comes at a cost to other ongoing activities. The current study builds on previous work by examining the cost associated with PM when the target event is salient. Target salience is among the criteria for automatic retrieval of intentions according to the multiprocess view of PM. An alternative theory, the preparatory attentional and memory processes theory, argues that PM performance, including retrieval of the intent, is never automatic and successful performance always will come at a cost to other ongoing activity. The 4 experiments reported here used a salient PM target event. In addition, Experiments 3 and 4 were designed to meet the stringent criteria proposed for automatic retrieval of intentions by multiprocess theory, and, yet, in all 4 experiments, delayed intentions interfered with ongoing task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative importance of task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance to global ratings of job performance: A policy-capturing approach.

A review of research on job performance suggests 3 broad components: task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance. This study examined the relative importance of each component to ratings of overall performance by using an experimental policy-capturing design. Managers in 5 jobs read hypothetical profiles describing employees' task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance and provided global ratings of performance. Within-subjects regression analyses indicated that the weights given to the 3 performance components varied across raters. Hierarchical cluster analyses indicated that raters' policies could be grouped into 3 homogeneous clusters: (a) task performance weighted highest, (b) counterproductive performance weighted highest, and (c) equal and large weights given to task and counterproductive performance. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that demographic variables were not related to raters' weights. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory organization of action events and its relationship to memory performance.

Previous research yielded inconsistent results regarding the memory organization of self-performed actions. The authors propose that task performance changes the very basis of memory organization. Enactment during study and test (Experiment 1) yielded stronger enactive clustering (based on motor-movement similarities), whereas verbal encoding yielded stronger conceptual clustering (based on semantic-episodic similarities). Enactment enhanced memory quantity and memory accuracy. Both measures increased with enactive clustering under self-performance instructions but with conceptual clustering under verbal instructions. Enactment only during study (Experiment 2) or only during testing (Experiment 3) also enhanced enactive clustering. It is proposed that different conditions affect the relative salience of different types of memory organization and their relative contribution to recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance predictions improve prospective memory and influence retrieval experience.

In retrospective memory, performance predictions have been found to enhance performance on subsequent memory tests. In prospective memory, the influence of metacognitive judgments on performance has not been investigated systematically. In the present study, 140 undergraduate students performed a complex short-term memory task that included a prospective memory task. Half of them gave performance predictions after the prospective memory task instructions. In addition, the specificity of the prospective memory task was manipulated by instructing participants either to perform an action when a word that belongs to the category of musical instruments was presented or to respond when the word “trumpet” was presented. The results showed that performance predictions enhanced performance, but only for the categorical task. Additional analyses of retrieval experience showed that performance predictions lead to an increase in search experiences while cue specificity was accompanied by an increase in pop up experiences. The results indicate that performance predictions can improve prospective performance and thus may be a valuable strategy for assisting prospective memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamemory and prospective memory in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Metamemory is integral for strategizing about memory intentions. This study investigated the prospective memory (PM) deficit in Parkinson's disease (PD) from a metamemory viewpoint, with the aim of examining whether metamemory deficits might contribute to PM deficits in PD. Method: Sixteen patients with PD and 16 healthy older adult controls completed a time-based PM task (initiating a key press at two specified times during an ongoing task), and an event-based PM task (initiating a key press in response to animal words during an ongoing task). To measure metamemory participants were asked to predict and postdict their memory performance before and after completing the tasks, as well as complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their everyday memory function. Results: The PD group had no impairment, relative to controls, on the event-based task, but had prospective (initiating the key press) and retrospective (recalling the instructions) impairments on the time-based task. The PD group also had metamemory impairments on the time-based task; they were inaccurate at predicting their performance before doing the task but, became accurate when making postdictions. This suggests impaired metamemory knowledge but preserved metamemory monitoring. There were no group differences regarding PD patients' self-reported PM performance on the questionnaire. Conclusions: These results reinforce previous findings that PM impairments in PD are dependent on task type. Several accounts of PM failures in time-based tasks are presented, in particular, ways in which mnemonic and metacognitive deficits may contribute to the difficulties observed on the time-based task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of prospective memory in typically developing children.

Objective: This study aimed to use specifically designed tasks to capture time-based, activity-based, and event-based prospective memory (PM) performance in typically developing school-age children. Method: Two PM tasks (Fishing Game & Happy Week) were used to examine the developmental patterns of PM in these children. Retrospective memory (RM) was also examined in these tasks. A total of 120 children aged between 7 and 12 years (10 girls and 10 boys in each age band) were recruited. Tests of working memory, inhibition, and IQ were also administered. Results: The age effect on PM accuracy was significant, with improvements identified between ages 7 to 8 and 10 to 11 years. For both tasks, performance on the time-based PM task was significantly poorer than that on the event-based PM task, which in turn was significantly poorer than that on the activity-based PM task. In terms of errors, results indicated that while errors associated with the PM component of the tasks decreased with age, errors associated with the RM component showed an inverted-U shape. The different patterns of errors suggest qualitative as well as quantitative differences in PM development in children. Finally, IQ, working memory, and inhibition were found to relate to PM when age was partialed out. Conclusions: Results of the study highlight the importance of contextual cues, such as activities and events, for prospective remembering in children. In addition, they have provided a general picture of PM development in school-age children and have implications for educators and parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time-based prospective memory impairment in patients with thalamic stroke.

The role of the thalamus in memory is potentially very complex. However, most studies on the memory impairments of thalamic lesions have focused on retrospective memory, rarely on prospective memory. To explore the effect of thalamic lesions on event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM), respectively, and to verify the hypothesis that the thalamus is involved in the prospective memory, EBPM and TBPM tasks were administered to 18 thalamic stroke patients and 18 age- and education-matched healthy controls. In the EBPM task, subjects were asked to perform an action whenever particular words were presented. In the TBPM task, subjects were asked to perform an action at certain times. Compared with the performance of healthy controls on EBPM and TBPM tasks (EBPM, 4.3 ± 1.5; TBPM, 5.4 ± 1.0), there was a significant difference in the performance of thalamic stroke patients in the TBPM tasks (2.4 ± 1.6), but no difference was found in EBPM tasks (3.7 ± 1.1). These results may indicate that the thalamus is involved in PM and particularly in TBPM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of remembering to remember in event-based prospective memory: Investigating the capacity demands of delayed intention performance.

Prospective memory tasks are often accomplished during the performance of other activities. Despite the dual-task nature of prospective memory, little attention has been paid to how successful prospective memory performance affects ongoing activities. In the first 2 experiments, participants performing an embedded prospective memory task had longer response times on nonprospective memory target trials of a lexical decision task than participants performing the lexical decision task alone. In the prospective memory groups, longer lexical decision response times were associated with better prospective memory performance (Experiments 1, 2, and 3), a pattern not demonstrated with an embedded retrospective memory task (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 3 suggest that the retrieval of a delayed intention, or the prospective component, can require capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)