Prospective memory (partially) mediates the link between ADHD symptoms and procrastination

Abstract

Individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often show poor planning and poor organization of tasks and activities which has been related to reduced memory for delayed intentions (prospective memory) and procrastination-in addition to other cognitive or motivational factors. This study set out to bring the fields of prospective memory and procrastination research together and to explore possible relations between the two constructs in ADHD. Twenty-nine adults with ADHD and 24 healthy controls performed several laboratory-based and real-life prospective memory tasks and filled in questionnaires measuring their symptom severity and procrastination behaviour. Overall, individuals' with ADHD showed clear deficits in everyday prospective memory performance. Individuals with ADHD recalled and executed less of their own real-life intentions. Moreover, there were clear links between everyday prospective memory performance and reported procrastination behaviour, and everyday prospective memory performance mediated the link between ADHD symptoms and procrastination behaviour.

I could do it now, but I’d rather (forget to) do it later: examining links between procrastination and prospective memory failures

“…As a consequence, retention-intervals may often be particularly long for procrastinators, whichas our data showscan lead to more PM failures. Our findings also cohere with Altgassen et al (2019) who suggested a negative link between PM and procrastination. However, Altgassen et al (2019) only used a self-reported questionnaire to assess procrastination and they focused on individuals with ADHD.…”

“…Our findings also cohere with Altgassen et al (2019) who suggested a negative link between PM and procrastination. However, Altgassen et al (2019) only used a self-reported questionnaire to assess procrastination and they focused on individuals with ADHD. The present study hereby goes one step further and corroborates these findings with an objective, behavioral measure and it extends the association of procrastination and PM for the first time to a more general, non-clinical population.…”

“…In this context, we also point out that the present study design and analyses do ultimately not allow to exclude reverse causality. Indeed, although we argue that procrastination can lead to PM failures, Altgassen et al (2019) suggest that participants' PM abilities contribute to procrastination. Future studies applying different designs and statistical methods (e.g., longitudinal studies and cross-lagged modelling) will have to re-examine the causality between procrastination and PM in more detail.…”

“…Although these points speak in favor of a link between procrastination and PM, so far only one study has examined their potential association. Specifically, Altgassen, Scheres, and Edel (2019) recently demonstrated a strong link between the two domains (r = -.57), with lower PM performance being associated to higher levels of procrastination self-ratings.…”

Special edition on the occasion of Jan K. Buitelaar’s 65th anniversary

“…These include an assessment of the impact of successful learning of self-regulation on reward processing in children with ADHD (Baumeister et al 2019). We also take up the question of the specificity of reaction time variability for ADHD (Salum et al 2019), and the mediation of the link between ADHD symptoms and procrastination by prospective memory (Altgassen et al 2019). Furthermore, this issue discusses whether the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA) has a practical effect on adult ADHD (Manor 2019) and focuses on ADHD as a frequent, hidden comorbidity in adult psychiatric patients (Bitter et al 2019).…”