Prospective memory in children: The effects of age and task interruption.

Abstract

Prospective memory (PM), remembering to carry out a task in the future, is highly relevant to children's everyday functioning, yet relatively little is known about it. For these reasons the effects of age and task interruption on PM were studied in 3 experiments. Children, aged 4-, 5-, and 7-years, were asked to name pictures in stacks of cards (the ongoing task) and to remember to do something when they saw a target picture (the PM task). Significant age differences were identified, but age explained only a small amount of variance. As predicted, children in the no-interruption condition performed significantly better than those who had to interrupt the ongoing activity in order to carry out the PM task. An additional finding was that no relation was detected between performance on prospective and retrospective memory tasks.

Memory Complaints and Prospective Memory Performance across the Lifespan

“…For the 7-9-year olds we found a similar amount of prospective and retrospective memory complaints, while the 11-12-year olds were judged to commit more prospective than retrospective memory failures. The findings for the 7-9-year olds are in line with previous data of a greater decrease of reported retrospective as compared to prospective memory problems with age in 2-6-year old children (Kliegel & Jäger, 2007) and of greater performance decrements in retrospective as compared to prospective memory tasks in children this age (Kvavilashvili et al, 2001). It seems that for children aged 11 to 12 years like in adults, parents regard prospective memory failures as more frequent than retrospective memory problems.…”

“…However, in comparison to prospective memory, retrospective memory performance increases in young children (Kvavilashvili et al, 2001) respectively decrements in old adults seem to be more pronounced (Henry, MacLeod, Phillips, & Crawford, 2004;Kvavilashvili et al, 2009). …”

Prospective memory 7 years after severe childhood traumatic brain injury – the TGE 2 prospective longitudinal study

“…Detailed description and results of IQ and EF used at one year follow-up can be found elsewhere 21 . Most individuals (26) were still children at the time of the study but 13 had become young adults. Thirty-seven controls were recruited (two controls could not be recruited within the time frame of the study).…”

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

“…As evidence of this claim, Kvavilashvili, Messer, and Ebdon (2001) report that PM failures represent 50% to 70% of everyday memory problems (see also Crovitz & Daniel, 1984;Terry, 1988). From a developmental perspective, the ability to carry out an intended activity is a critical skill that children must acquire as they gain independence from their caregivers (Kvavilashvili et al, 2001).…”