Prospective memory and aging: preserved spontaneous retrieval, but impaired deactivation, in older adults

Scullin, Michael K.; Bugg, Julie M.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Einstein, Gilles O. · 2011 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/s13421-011-0106-z

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Summary

This study investigates age-related differences in prospective memory, specifically focusing on the mechanisms of spontaneous retrieval and the ability to deactivate completed intentions. While older adults often perform comparably to younger adults on prospective memory tasks supported by strong environmental cues, research has been mixed regarding age effects. The authors aimed to determine if normal aging preserves spontaneous retrieval processes but impairs the ability to suppress or "turn off" intentions once they are no longer relevant. This inquiry is motivated by the inhibitory deficit hypothesis, which posits that aging compromises the capacity to delete irrelevant information, potentially leading to persistent interference from finished intentions. The researchers employed a mixed factorial design involving 40 younger adults and 38 older adults. Participants engaged in an event-based prospective memory task where they were instructed to press a specific key when target words appeared during an image-rating task. Crucially, participants were then informed that the prospective memory task was finished before performing a subsequent lexical decision task, during which the same target words appeared again. Because participants had no incentive to monitor for cues during the lexical decision phase, any slowing in response times to target words relative to control words was interpreted as "intention interference," indicative of spontaneous retrieval. The study also manipulated the delay between the completion of the prospective memory task and the lexical decision phase. Additionally, participants completed the Stroop task and Trail Making Test to measure inhibitory control and executive functioning. The results revealed that younger adults showed no intention interference during the lexical decision task, indicating they successfully deactivated their finished intentions. In contrast, older adults demonstrated significant intention interference, with slower response latencies to target words compared to control words, despite being instructed that the task was complete. This interference effect in older adults was negatively correlated with measures of inhibitory control; older adults with poorer inhibition exhibited greater interference. Controlling for inhibitory functioning eliminated the age difference in intention interference. Furthermore, prospective memory performance during the initial image-rating phase was high and equivalent for both age groups, and the delay manipulation had no significant effect on the results. These findings suggest that while spontaneous retrieval processes remain preserved in normal aging, the ability to deactivate or inhibit completed intentions declines. The study supports the view that intention interference reflects a cue-driven, spontaneous process rather than active monitoring or simple familiarity. The impairment in deactivation is linked to age-related deficits in inhibitory control, implying that older adults struggle to suppress irrelevant, spontaneously retrieved information. This has significant implications for understanding everyday forgetting in older adults, particularly in contexts where intentions must be abandoned or suppressed, such as remembering to take medication only at specific times. The results refine theories of cognitive aging by distinguishing between preserved associative retrieval and impaired executive control mechanisms.

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• prospective memory interruptions