Is prospective memory enhanced by cue-action semantic relatedness and enactment at encoding?

Abstract

Benefits and costs on prospective memory performance, of enactment at encoding and a semantic association between a cue-action word pair, were investigated in two experiments. Findings revealed superior performance for both younger and older adults following enactment, in contrast to verbal encoding, and when cue-action semantic relatedness was high. Although younger adults outperformed older adults, age did not moderate benefits of cue-action relatedness or enactment. Findings from a second experiment revealed that the inclusion of an instruction to perform a prospective memory task led to increments in response latency to items from the ongoing activity in which that task was embedded, relative to latencies when the ongoing task only was performed. However, this task interference 'cost' did not differ as a function of either cue-action relatedness or enactment. We argue that the high number of cue-action pairs employed here influenced meta-cognitive processes, in particular attention allocation, in all experimental conditions. 3 Many of us have experienced the embarrassment of forgetting to turn off our mobile phone before attending a concert or a work meeting. Although we intended to do so, our intention 'slipped our minds', even if only for a few crucial moments. Such failures to recall an intention to do something at a future moment, described as errors of prospective remembering, are not uncommon in everyday life (Ellis & Freeman, 2008;Terry, 1988). Here we investigate the influence of two simple strategies that might be expected to support successful prospective memory performance and explore the demands that their employment places on the recruitment of strategic processes.A number of different variables have been posited to influence the likelihood that an intention will be retrieved at the correct moment. It has been suggested, for example, that the level of association or integration between a retrieval cue and its intended action is a key factor in determining the likelihood of successfully completing a prospective memory (PM) task (Ellis, 1996;McDaniel, Guynn, Einstein and Breneisser (2004; see also, McDaniel & Einstein, 2000). Consistent with this proposal, McDaniel et al (2004) reported superior PM performance when participants were required to write the word sauce upon encountering the cue word spaghetti in an ongoing word-rating task, compared to when they had to write church upon seeing spaghetti (see also Marsh et al., 2003). Moreover, it has been observed that PM responses to cue words from semantically related cue-action pairs are faster than those to cue words from unrelated pairs (Maylor, Smith, della Sala & Logie, 2002). These findings indicate that not only are actions more likely to be retrieved upon the presentation of a related cue than an unrelated one, but also that retrieval may occur more readily under such conditions. Consistent with these findings, McDaniel et al (2004) have observed that PM performance when cue-action pairs are semantically related occurs relatively 4...

Enhancing prospective memory in mild cognitive impairment: The role of enactment

“…By the same token an AD-related decline is usually expected in cognitively demanding PM tasks, as it is the case in the present paradigm in which six different cue-action pairs will be presented that will require the performance of six different intended actions (cf. Pereira, Ellis, & Freeman, 2012a). We propose that such tasks require the engagement of attentional resources that are compromised even with very mild AD (cf.…”

“…The level of association or integration between a retrieval cue and its intended action might also be a key factor in determining the likelihood of successfully completing a PM task (Ellis, 1996;McDaniel, Guynn, Einstein and Breneisser, 2004), especially for non-focal cues (Scullin, McDaniel & Einstein, 2010). Moreover, faster response times have been identified for cues semantically related with the respective PM action than for those which were semantically unrelated in healthy young and older adults (Pereira, Ellis & Freeman, 2012a;Maylor, Smith, della Sala & Logie, 2002). This pattern of results reveals that a strong semantic relation between the items might support retrieval by enhancing not only accuracy but also speed.…”

P3‐094: Acting is the Key: New directions for the stimulation of prospective memory in mild cognitive impairment

“…investigated whether enactment at encoding could improve PM performance and whether the benefits of enactment for prospective remembering were dependent on the relationship between the retrieval cue and its associated action in young and healthy older adults (e.g. Pereira, 2012).…”

Sustaining prospective memory functioning in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A lifespan approach to the critical role of encoding.

“…This decline is anticipated to be even more marked for cognitively compromised older adults (Thompson, et al, 2017). The encoding strategy proposed is expected to facilitate PM performance across adulthood (Pereira, et al, 2012a), being particularly beneficial in later life given the well-documented decline in RM and executive functions in older age, especially in the context of neuronal degeneration (Pereira, et al, 2015).…”

“…Specifically, motoric encoding is anticipated to support PM performance by engaging additional sensorial processes (e.g. tactile, proprioceptive) which might contribute to enhanced encoding and enhanced salience of PM cue (Pereira, et al, 2012a;.…”