Cognitive Flexibility Improves Memory for Delayed Intentions

Abstract

The ability to delay the execution of a goal until the appropriate time, prospective memory (PM), can be supported by the following two different cognitive control strategies: proactive control involving working memory maintenance of the goal and active monitoring of the environment; or reactive control relying on timely retrieval of goal information from episodic memory. Certain situations tend to favor each strategy, but the manner in which individuals adjust their strategy in response to changes in the environment is unknown. Across two experiments, human participants performed a delayed-recognition PM task embedded in an ongoing visual search task that fluctuated in difficulty. A control strategy was identified from moment to moment using reaction time costs and fMRI measures of goal maintenance. We found that people fluidly modified control strategies in accordance with changes in task demands (e.g., shifting toward proactive control when task difficulty decreased). This cognitive flexibility proved adaptive as it was associated with improved PM performance.

Preserving prospective memory in daily life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of mnemonic strategy, cognitive training, external memory aid, and combination interventions.

“…Top-down monitoring is a cognitively demanding process whereby individuals rehearse their intentions and/or actively search their environment for cues that signal that the intention should be performed. Engaging top-down monitoring increases the probability of remembering to perform an intention, but because monitoring is a cognitively demanding process that requires sustained anterior prefrontal cortex activation (Cona, Scarpazza, Sartori, Moscovitch, & Bisiacchi, 2015), it is unlikely to be sustained over long time intervals (Koslov, Mukerji, Hedgpeth, & Lewis-Peacock, 2019; Morgan et al, 2012). Given that aging and many clinical conditions compromise prefrontal cortex functioning and top-down control processes, it is no surprise that monitoring is often impaired in older adults and individuals with brain injuries and neurodegenerative disorders (McDaniel & Einstein, 2007).…”

Comparison of retrospective and prospective memory in subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder

“…doing several activities in a day) individuals tend to use proactive control more. 37 Moreover, as the time gap between encoded goals and actualizing them stretches, individuals would become more likely to use the reactive control. 12 It seems that individuals with checking subtype of OCD who have lower levels of cognitive flexibility are not able to flexibly apply either of these two strategies; causing impairment in the correct retrieving of information related to future-related intentions and eventually leading to impairment of prospective memory.…”

The chain-mediation pathway of gender regarding academic delay of gratification in college students is regulated by anxiety/depressive mood and prospective memory

“…Cognitive control and prospective memory in complex dynamic environments require cognitive flexibility ( Boag et al, 2019 ). Thus, improving cognitive flexibility can improve prospective memory and promote the ability to delay gratification ( Koslov et al, 2019 ). Whereas negative emotions such as anxiety and depression can reduce cognitive flexibility ( Park and Moghaddam, 2017 ; Hsieh and Lin, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2020 ), which leads to decreased prospective memory.…”