Errorless learning of prospective memory tasks: An experimental investigation in people with memory disorders

Fish, Jessica; Manly, Tom; Kopelman, Michael D.; Morris, Robin G. · 2014 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2014.921204

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Summary

This study investigates whether errorless learning (EL), a technique known to improve retrospective memory in individuals with cognitive impairments, can also enhance prospective memory (PM)—the ability to remember to perform future intentions. The research addresses a gap in rehabilitation literature by testing if EL benefits future actions, specifically distinguishing between event-based PM (EBPM), which relies on environmental cues and mnemonic processes, and time-based PM (TBPM), which requires self-initiated monitoring and executive control. The authors hypothesized that EL would yield a significant advantage for EBPM due to its reliance on implicit memory traces, but would show little to no benefit for TBPM, which depends on executive functions not supported by EL. Fourteen adults with neurological memory impairments participated in a 2x2 within-subjects factorial design, completing PM tasks under four counterbalanced conditions: EL and errorful learning (EF) for both EBPM and TBPM. The experimental procedure involved encoding task instructions using vanishing cues. In the EL condition, participants were prevented from making errors through systematic cue fading and prohibitions on guessing. In the EF condition, participants were encouraged to guess, and forced errors were elicited to ensure equivalent exposure to correct information. Following encoding, participants performed a 16.5-minute PM task embedded within an ongoing semantic judgment task. EBPM required pressing a key upon seeing specific target words, while TBPM required pressing a key at specific time intervals. The results confirmed the primary hypothesis: a significant EL advantage (ELA) was observed for EBPM (effect size d = .63), indicating that participants performed significantly better when instructions were learned errorlessly. In contrast, no significant ELA was found for TBPM (d = –.01), suggesting that preventing errors during encoding did not improve performance on tasks requiring self-initiated monitoring. The study also verified that the experimental manipulations successfully minimized errors in the EL condition and that retrospective recall of instructions was adequate across conditions, ruling out simple forgetting as the cause of PM failures. These findings extend the evidence base for cognitive rehabilitation by demonstrating that EL can effectively support the execution of future intentions, specifically those triggered by external cues. The results imply that EL is a viable clinical tool for improving day-to-day EBPM tasks in people with memory disorders. However, the lack of benefit for TBPM suggests that rehabilitation strategies for time-based intentions must address executive monitoring processes rather than relying solely on encoding techniques. This distinction highlights the importance of tailoring rehabilitation methods to the specific cognitive demands of the prospective memory task.

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• prospective memory interruptions