Supporting strategic processes can improve time-based prospective memory in the laboratory among older adults with HIV disease.

Abstract

Older adults living with HIV have trouble "remembering to remember," which affects their abilities to live independently and follow health care provider instructions. This experiment demonstrates that older HIVϩ adults can improve their memory performance in the laboratory by using specific strategies that reduce the cognitive demands of remembering to remember. Future studies using more naturalistic memory methods will determine whether similar improvements in remembering to remember can be achieved in the daily lives and health behaviors (e.g., medication adherence) of older adults with HIV disease.

Enhancing cue salience improves aspects of naturalistic time-based prospective memory in older adults with HIV disease.

“…Figure 3 shows a mean response lag of Ϯ5 min for the two auditory alarm groups, suggesting that even though participant's responses were commonly early or late, the salient cue was nevertheless effective at activating the intention and promoting its execution. However, PM accuracy in the auditory alarm groups (i.e., cue detection and combination) was only ϳ60% in this naturalistic study, which is considerably lower than the 95% PM accuracy rates observed in the laboratory using parallel methods with these same participants (Woods et al, 2020). It possible that some participants heard the alarm but did not subsequently complete the PM task, because research indicates that even brief interruptions in between the activation and execution of a PM cue can lead to forgetting (Dismukes, 2012).…”

“…checking, which is one of the primary means of strategic monitoring for time-based PM (Woods et al, 2020). In this naturalistic study, we did not see any effect of supporting cue detection (or any phase of PM) on clock checking behavior.…”

“…Participants could also press a button on the PM response box to reveal a digital clock on the display screen for 5 s but were encouraged to use this function (and other time-checking devices) sparingly. In this way, the clock checking instructions paralleled the computerized PM task that participants completed as part of the laboratory experiment (Woods et al, 2020), thereby allowing for more direct comparisons between the laboratory and naturalistic parts of the study. This instruction also helped to increase the resource demands of the PM task (Huang, Loft, & Humphreys, 2014) and may better reflect the limited availability for clock checking in typical busy daily life.…”

“…This study examined the benefits of providing strategic supports at encoding, monitoring, and cue detection for naturalistic time-based PM among older PLWH. Method: Participants included 116 older PLWH and 48 seronegatives who completed a baseline neuropsychological evaluation (see Woods et al, 2020), including a laboratory PM experiment that paralleled the design of the current naturalistic study. The naturalistic time-based PM task required participants to press a button on a portable PM response box 4 times per day for 1 month.…”

Online pharmacy navigation skills are associated with prospective memory in HIV disease

“…The study procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Boards at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and University of Houston. The parent study sample was comprised of 217 individuals age 50 and older (M ¼ 57.9, SD ¼ 6.6) enrolled in an NIH-funded investigation of PM at the UCSD HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program, which recruits from community-based organizations, local clinics, and regional advertisements (see Woods et al, 2020). The age cutoff of 50 was used for inclusion because 1) HIV disease may accelerate cognitive changes associated with aging processes (Kamkwalala & Newhouse, 2017), and 2) the largest percentage of older adults with HIV fall between ages 50 and 54 (CDC, 2018).…”