BPS COGNITIVE SECTION CONFERENCE, 1-3 SEPTEMBER, 2009

SYMPOSIUM TITLE: Cognitive and Clinical Issues in Prospective Memory

CONVENOR AND CHAIR: Lia Kvavilashvili

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PRESENTERS: Etta Drews (University of Sunderland), Judi Ellis (Reading University), Ruth Ford (Griffith University), Matthias Kliegel (Technical University of Dresden), Lia Kvavilashvili (University of Hertfordshire), Sarah Raskin (Trinity College, US).

Research on Prospective Memory has grown at a rapid pace in the last decade as shown by a large number of published papers, reviews and books. Up until recently, the work was mostly concentrating on cognitive mechanisms of prospective memory and the effects of aging. However, in the past few years researchers have started to examine prospective memory in various clinical populations and study the brain mechanisms that underpin the performance in a variety of prospective memory tasks. The present (international) symposium brings these lines of research together from experts across the continents. Thus, Judi Ellis, Matthias Kliegel and Ruth Ford address important issues that have received relatively little attention from cognitive researchers (the nature of implementational intentions, metamemory and prospective memory development, respectively). Etta Drews and Sarah Raskin report new studies that show impaired prospective memory performance in people with developmental dyslexia and schizophrenia, and Lia Kvavilashvili examines the brain mechanisms of prospective memory in Vietnam veterans with penetrating head injuries.

PAPER 1
Why do implementation intentions enhance retrieval cue accessibility?

Judi Ellis1, Laurie Butler1 & Emily Holmes2

1 University of Reading
2 University of Oxford

Objective: To explore two potential factors underlying the benefits of forming an implementation intention on retrieval cue accessibility: imagery and commitment.

Design: In Experiment 1 a standard paradigm is employed in which an implementation intention with commitment is contrasted with a familiarisation-only control condition and extended to include an implementation intention without commitment. In Experiment 2 an implementation intention without commitment is augmented by one of two contrasting imagery perspectives. In both experiments the intentions are embedded in a word search task and the experimental manipulations focus on one (target retrieval cue) of four words presented in some word puzzles.

Results: One way Anovas, on response latencies to target cue words in both experiments, reveal shorter latencies with commitment (Experiment 1) and 3rd person imagery (Experiment 2) compared to the control condition.

Conclusion: Commitment and imagery perspective independently enhance retrieval cue accessibility over and above an if-then implementation intention.

PAPER 2
Metacognition in prospective memory: Judgements of learning, delayed-JOL and underconfidence-with-practice effect in event-based prospective memory

Matthias Kliegel1, Katharina M. Schnitzspahn1, Melanie Zeintl1, Theodor Jäger2

1Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden
2Department of Psychology, Saarland University

This study investigated the role of metacognition in event-based prospective memory. The first aim was to explore the relation between an item-level prediction (judgements of learning) and actual performance. The task and the judgements of learning allowed a differentiation of the two components of prospective memory tasks (retrospective versus prospective). Results revealed that people had a basic awareness of their prospective memory abilities, but that it was far from accurate. Moreover, this study showed for the first time that two typical effects found in studies on judgements of learning in retrospective memory, namely the delayed-judgement of learning and the underconfidence-with-practice effect, also largely apply for prospective memory. The importance of metacognitive factors for prospective memory is discussed.

PAPER 3
EVENT-BASED PROSPECTIVE MEMORY IN YOUNG CHILDREN: AN INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ANALYSIS

Ruth Ford, David Shum, Timothy Driscoll
Griffith University

Children aged 4- to 6 years were requested to name pictures for a watching puppet and to make a special response to a predetermined picture (i.e., hiding the picture and refraining from naming it). In total, children identified the pictures in four stacks: the PM target appeared either in the last position (no interruption condition) or in the middle position (interruption condition). They also undertook assessments of verbal ability, cognitive inhibition, memory span, and perspective shifting as gauged by false-belief and false-sign tests. Regression analyses indicated a strong contribution of inhibitory skills to children’s PM performance in the interruption condition and to their success at withholding naming. In contrast, outcomes for the false-belief tests were a robust, independent predictor of PM performance in both conditions and for both dependent measures. Results are considered in terms of competing views regarding the developmental relations between false-belief understanding, cognitive inhibition, and episodic memory.

PAPER 4
Prospective Memory in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia

Etta Drews
University of Sunderland

Evidence from clinical and educational practice has shown that dyslexia does not only cause difficulties in learning to read, write and spell but nonlinguistic processes such as attention and executive functioning may also be affected. There is abundant anecdotal evidence indicating that people with dyslexia have poor time keeping and organization abilities. However, these problems have received little, if any, attention in previous research. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether at least some of these problems are due to prospective memory deficits. Adults with developmental dyslexia completed self reports as well as a study using a computerized version of the Virtual Week (Rendell & Craig, 2000). Self reports showed that dyslexics perceived themselves as more prone to prospective memory failures than control participants. Moreover, this pattern did also emerge under experimentally controlled conditions. The findings will be discussed within theoretical frameworks of prospective memory and the implications for future research in this population.

PAPER 5
The relationship between prospective memory and medication adherence in individuals with schizophrenia

S. Raskin1, J. Maye1, A. Rogers1, R. Astur2, M.Kurtz3

1 Trinity College, Hartford CT
2 Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford CT
3 Wesleyan University, Middletown CT

Research Objective: To determine whether there is a relationship between performance on a standardized measure of prospective memory and a standardized measure of medication adherence in individuals with schizophrenia. Design: Subjects with schizophrenia and age-matched healthy adults were administered standardized tests to assess prospective memory and medication adherence. Method: Twenty-five individuals who met the criteria for schizophrenia and 25 healthy adults were administered the Memory for Intentions Screening Test (MIST), Medication Management Ability Assessment (MMAA) and Virtual Reality Apartment Medication Management Assessment (VRAMMA). Results: Individuals with schizophrenia performed significantly more poorly on the MIST, MMAA and VRAMMA. On the VRAMMA, individuals with schizophrenia made more errors but checked the clock more. MIST performance significantly positively correlated with performance on MMAA and error score on VRAMMA. Conclusions: These data support previous findings of a prospective memory impairment in individuals with schizophrenia. Moreover, a relationship between prospective memory and an important naturalistic task, taking medications was demonstrated.

PAPER 6
Brain mechanisms of event- and time-based prospective memory: Insights from Vietnam veterans with penetrating head injury

1 Lia Kvavilashvili, 2 Frank Krueger, 3 Jeffrey Solomon, 4 Vanessa Raymont and 4 Jordan Grafman

1 University of Hertfordshire, UK
2 George Mason University, US
3 Medical Numerics, Inc., Germantown, MD, US
4 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, US

Objectives: To assess the very long term effects of penetrating head injury (PHI) on event-and time-based prospective memory and examine brain regions that may underpin performance on these tasks. Method: Vietnam veterans (N=199) with PHI and 55 matched controls completed several laboratory and naturalistic event- and time-based tasks over a 5-day testing period. Results: The control group performed significantly better than veterans with PHI on time-based tasks but the groups did not differ on event-based tasks even though some tasks had non-focal and less distinctive target events. Using a software package, ABLe (Solomon et al., 2007), which correlates overlapping brain lesions in multiple subjects with performance scores, we determined that prospective memory is supported by multiple brain regions (left temporal lobe, left and right prefrontal cortex and right parietal lobe) and that the involvement of specific brain sectors in prospective memory depends on task demands rather than whether the task is event- or time-based, laboratory or naturalistic. Conclusions: Results support the multiprocess theory (McDaniel & Einstein, 2007), which argues that prospective memory relies on both automatic and strategic processes.