Investigating how implementation intentions improve non-focal prospective memory tasks

I Won't Forget to Do It If It's Important: A Multinomial Processing Tree Analysis of Social Importance and Monetary Reward on Event-Based Prospective Memory

While previous research has suggested that prospective memory may be enhanced by providing a social motive (i.e., social importance) or by promising a monetary reward for successful performance, to the best of our knowledge, the underlying mechanisms responsible for these effects are still largely unexplored. In a sample of 96 younger adults, this study investigated how social importance and promising a monetary reward influence the prospective component and the retrospective component of event-based prospective memory separately, with the application of a multinomial modeling approach. Results revealed enhanced prospective memory performance for all importance conditions compared to a standard condition. This improvement was characterized by an increased allocation of resource-demanding attentional processes in performing the prospective memory task at the expense of the ongoing task without an increase in the perceived importance of the prospective memory task. The model-based analyses showed that the beneficial effects of importance arise from an increased engagement of the prospective component, leaving the estimates for the retrospective component unaffected.

The effect of verbal praise on prospective memory

Verbal praise is often used to improve prospective memory performance in daily life. According to the motivation cognitive model, the promotional effect of verbal praise on prospective memory may depend largely on redeploying attentional resources, so its promotional effect is likely to be influenced by attention. Two groups of college students (n = 128, n = 117) participated in two experimental studies that examined this hypothesis. Experiment 1 manipulated attention load by changing the difficulty of the ongoing tasks to focus on the effect of verbal praise on prospective memory under different attention load conditions. The results showed that verbal praise promoted prospective memory performance under both attentional load conditions (low, high), but verbal praise mainly promoted the prospective component when the attentional load was low, meanwhile, verbal praise mainly promoted the retrospective component when the attention load was high. Experiment 2 altered the dependence of prospective memory tasks on attentional resources by manipulating the cue focality, further exploring the promotional effect of verbal praise on prospective memory with different types of cues under the low attention load condition. The results showed that verbal praise only promoted prospective memory when non-focal cues were used. The results of this study partially verified the motivation cognitive model.

Improving children's ability to remember intentions: a literature review on strategies to improve prospective memory during childhood

Children often fail to remember executing intentions because prospective memory (PM) does not completely develop until late adolescence or young adulthood. PM failures are often observed in children and can have negative consequences on their everyday lives. Thus, in the last 50 years, various strategies to support children's PM have been designed and evaluated, such as prompting children to use different encoding modalities, such as verbal, visual, and enacted modalities, or encoding strategies, such as implementation intentions, episodic future thinking (EFT), and performance predictions, as well as providing children with verbal and visual reminders. However, not all these interventions have shown to efficiently enhance PM performance during childhood. The present literature review is aimed at summarizing these interventions and critically examining their effectiveness from a developmental perspective and by considering underlying mechanisms. The type of PM task (event-, time-, and activity-based), cognitive resource demands, and processing overlaps are also considered. Finally, directions for future research and possible applications in everyday life will be discussed.

The effect of implementation intentions on event-, time-, and activity-based prospective memory in typically developing children

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember and complete planned tasks in the future, which relies on working memory (WM) for encoding and maintaining the intention. Implementation intention is a useful strategy for improving PM function in adults. Yet the effect of implementation intentions in children, and whether factors such as age, gender, and WM capacity could modulate its effect remains unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of implementation intentions on PM in 154 children at 7–11 years of age. The standard group received standard instructions on PM task, whereas the implementation intention group received additional PM instruction, which comprised the “if . . . then . . .” format and guided visual imagery of the PM scenario. Participants completed the computer-based PM tasks (tapping into focal event-, time-, and activity-based PM) and the WM tests. The results showed that the two groups exhibited similar focal event-, time-, and activity-based PM performance. Although age and gender did not modulate the effect of implementation intentions on PM, WM capacity moderated the implementation intention effect on time-based PM. Specifically, higher WM capacity predicted higher implementation intention benefit. These findings suggest that children with higher WM capacity may have higher chance to benefit from the implementation intention strategy.

Implementation intentions speed up young adults’ responses to prospective memory targets in everyday life

Prospective memory (PM), which is the ability to remember to do something in the future, is vitally important for successful everyday functioning. Although young adults demonstrate high PM abilities in laboratory settings, their abilities to complete intended actions in naturalistic settings are surprisingly low. The present study tested the effectiveness of various encoding techniques in improving young adults’ performance in everyday life. Ninety-two participants were asked to remember to take photographs of receipts for a duration of seven days. The task instructions were either given alone or followed by: (a) the if-then statement, (b) visualising the task, or (c) the combination of the if-then statement plus visualisation. The if-then statement alone significantly speeded up responses to the prospective memory targets, i.e., less time elapsed between getting a receipt and taking a photograph of it. With no effect of the if-then statement on the proportion of correct PM responses, the results may suggest that the if-then statement strengthened the PM cue-intention association but did not influence the PM cue saliency.

Nighttime sleep benefits the prospective component of prospective memory

Studies suggest that sleep benefits event-based prospective memory, which involves carrying out intentions when particular events occur. Prospective memory has a prospective component (remembering that one has an intention), and a retrospective component (remembering when to carry it out). As effects of sleep on retrospective memory are well established, the effect of sleep on prospective memory may thus be due exclusively to an effect of sleep on its retrospective component. Therefore, the authors investigated whether nighttime sleep improves the prospective component of prospective memory, or a retrospective component, or both. In a first session, participants performed an event-based prospective-memory task (that was embedded in an ongoing task) 3 minutes after forming an intention and, in a second session, 12 hours after forming an intention. The sessions were separated by either nighttime sleep or daytime wakefulness. The authors disentangled prospective-memory performance into its retrospective and prospective components via multinomial processing tree modeling. There was no effect of sleep on the retrospective component, which may have been due to a time-of-day effect. The prospective component, which is the component unique to prospective memory, declined less strongly after a retention interval filled with sleep as compared with a retention interval filled with wakefulness. A hybrid interaction suggested that refreshed attention after sleep may account for this effect, but did not support the consolidation of the association between the intention and its appropriate context as a mechanism driving the effect.

Improving Prospective Memory Performance in Community-dwelling Older Adults: Goal Management Training and Implementation Intentions

Aim: The present study tested a compensatory executive intervention for prospective memory (goal management training) for the first time in older adults. Prospective memory (the ability to remember and execute a task in the future) declines with age, with significant implications for older adults' activities of daily living and quality of life. Prospective memory interventions have focused primarily on the retrospective component of prospective memory (e.g., implementation intentions). However, executive dysfunction is also implicated in age-related prospective memory decline.Methods: Community-dwelling older adults were randomly allocated to receive goal management training, implementation intentions or no intervention. Prospective memory was assessed before and after the intervention with a well-validated laboratory-based prospective memory measure. Results: Contrary to predictions, neither goal management training nor implementation intentions were successful at improving prospective memory in healthy older adults. Participants who received goal management training were more likely to have difficulty comprehending the intervention. Post-hoc analyses suggested implementation intentions improved prospective memory specifically for participants with poorer baseline prospective memory. Conclusions: These results represent important cautionary findings about the possible limitations of goal management training to improve prospective memory in older adults. Future research should also consider the role of baseline prospective memory ability in affecting response to compensatory intervention.

The effect of implementation intentions on prospective memory performance in patients with schizophrenia: A multinomial modeling approach

Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) consistently show prospective memory (PM) impairments, and the technique of implementation intentions has been shown to improve PM performance in these patients. PM is considered to have prospective and retrospective components. However, it remains unclear which component of PM is impaired in patients with SCZ and which component(s) is facilitated by implementation intentions (II). The present study aimed to examine these two issues. Forty-two patients with SCZ and 42 matched healthy controls were randomly assigned to an II group or a typical instruction group. All participants were administered a color-matching PM task. Results showed that, using a multinomial-modeling approach, patients with SCZ exhibited impairment in the retrospective component of PM. In addition, while II improved the prospective PM component in healthy controls, both prospective and retrospective PM components in patients with SCZ were improved. Together, our results shed light on the mechanism of PM impairment in SCZ patients and the mechanism of II in improving PM performance.

Characterising monitoring processes in event-based prospective memory: Evidence from pupillometry

In event-based prospective memory (PM) paradigms, participants are engaged in an ongoing task (e.g. lexical decision) while maintaining an intention to produce a special response if they encounter pre-defined targets (e.g. animal words). This leads to slowed response times even on nontarget trials, which might be caused by: (A) a periodic or intermittent process that occurs transiently to check whether the current stimulus is a target, and/or (B) a sustained monitoring process maintained throughout task performance rather than being time-locked to stimulus presentation. These processes are hard to distinguish, seeing as the key difference between them occurs in the gap between trials. Processes occurring in these gaps cannot be measured directly by behavioural methods. Here we measured pupil size as a continuous index of intention-related processing in an event-based prospective memory task. Participants performed a lexical decision task while remembering intentions based on either specific target words or categories (e.g. animal words). In two experiments, response times were slowed during PM conditions. Pupil size was significantly increased in the category but not the specific-word condition. This effect was sustained throughout task performance rather than occurring transiently when stimuli were presented. Therefore there was no evidence for a transient pupillometric response associated with nontarget checking, although there was a strong transient response when targets were presented in either PM condition. These results provide evidence for a sustained PM monitoring process that occurs even in the gaps between trials.

The general facilitation effect of implementation intentions on prospective memory performance in patients with schizophrenia

INTRODUCTION

Prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to execute a planned intention in the future. It can be divided into event- and time-based, according to the nature of the PM cue. Event-based PM cues can be classified as focal or non-focal. Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) have been found to be impaired in both event- and time-based PM. PM has been found to be improved by implementation intentions, which is an encoding strategy in the format of "if X then Y". This study examined the effect of implementation intentions on a non-focal event-based and a time-based PM task in patients with SCZ.

METHODS

Forty-two patients with SCZ and 42 healthy controls were allocated to either an implementation intention or a control PM instruction condition and were asked to complete two PM tasks.

RESULTS

Implementation intentions was found to improve performance in both the non-focal event-based and time-based PM tasks in patients with SCZ and healthy controls, with no costs to the ongoing task. The improvement in time-based PM performance in the implementation intentions condition was partially mediated by the frequency of clock checking behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation intentions can facilitate PM performance in patients with SCZ and has the potential to be used as a clinical intervention tool.

Encoding strategy training and self-reported everyday prospective memory in people with Parkinson disease: a randomized-controlled trial

Objective To compare the effects of laboratory-based training in implementation intentions (II; experimental strategy) and verbal rehearsal (VR; control strategy) on self-reported everyday prospective memory among people with Parkinson disease (PD) and to investigate potential correlates of change in self-reported everyday prospective memory in response to this training. Method This was a randomized-controlled trial. Participants with mild to moderate PD without dementia underwent one session of training in either II (n = 25) or VR (n = 27). Then they were instructed to use their strategy as much as possible in their everyday lives to help them remember to do things. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire Prospective Scale (PRMQ-Pro) administered at baseline and one month after training assessed training-related change in self-reported everyday prospective memory. Baseline depressive symptoms, perceptions of the strategy (credibility, expectancy), prospective memory-related awareness, global cognition, and disease severity were correlated to PRMQ-Pro Change scores (post minus pre) to determine their association with response to training. Results The VR group's PRMQ-Pro scores declined from pre to post training, while the II group's remained stable (p = .03). This effect was driven by change in self-cued everyday prospective memory tasks. Higher baseline depressive symptoms, treatment expectancy, and global cognition related to better response to training in the II group (rs ≤ -.40, ps ≤ .05). Conclusions II training may prevent everyday prospective memory decline among people with PD. In addition, people with higher depression, stronger expectations of improvement from strategy training, or better global cognition may benefit the most from II training.

Improving Prospective Memory in Persons With Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Prospective memory (PM) is essential for productive and independent living and necessary for compliance with prescribed health behaviors. Parkinson disease (PD) can cause PM deficits that are associated with activity limitations and reduced quality of life. Forming implementation intentions (IIs) is an encoding strategy that may improve PM in this population.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the effect of IIs on PM performance in PD.

METHODS

This was a laboratory-based randomized controlled trial. Participants with mild to moderate PD without dementia (n = 62) performed a computerized PM test (Virtual Week) under standard instructions. One week later they were randomly allocated to perform it again while using either IIs or a rehearsal (RR) encoding strategy.

RESULTS

PM performance was better with the use of both strategies relative to standard instructions. This effect was larger for tasks with event-based compared with time-based cues. In addition, IIs resulted in a larger effect than RR for the nonrepeated tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Strategies that support full encoding of PM cues and actions can improve PM performance among people with PD, particularly for tasks with cues that are readily available in the environment. IIs may be more effective than RR for nonrepeated tasks, but this finding warrants verification. Future work should address transfer of strategy use from the laboratory to everyday life. Targeted strategies to manage PM impairment could improve function and quality of life and significantly affect clinical care for people with PD.

The effect and mechanisms of implementation intention in improving prospective memory performance in schizophrenia patients

People with schizophrenia (SCZ) have been shown to have prospective memory (PM) deficits. PM refers to the ability to remember to perform delayed intentions in the future and plays an important role in everyday independent functioning in SCZ. To date, few studies have investigated methods to improve PM in SCZ. This study aimed to examine whether implementation intention can improve PM performance and to explore its underlying mechanisms. Fifty people with SCZ and 50 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) participated in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to an implementation intention condition or a control instruction condition. Participants were required to make PM responses when PM cue words appeared while they were undertaking an ongoing task with two levels of cognitive load (1-back or 2-back). Results showed that people with SCZ were impaired in PM, and implementation intention improved PM performances for both SCZ and HC. Implementation intention improved PM performance in SCZ in both the low and the high cognitive load conditions without ongoing task cost, suggesting that implementation intention improved PM remembering in an automatic way. These results indicate that implementation intention may be a beneficial technique for improving PM performances in people with SCZ.

Prospective memory in context: Moving through a familiar space

Successful completion of delayed intentions is a common but important aspect of daily behavior. Such behavior requires not only memory for the intended action but also recognition of the opportunity to perform that action, known collectively as prospective memory. The fact that prospective memory tasks occur in the midst of other activities is captured in laboratory tasks by embedding the prospective memory task in an ongoing activity. In many cases the requirement to perform the prospective memory task results in a reduction in ongoing performance relative to when the ongoing task is performed alone. This is referred to as the cost to the ongoing task and reflects the allocation of attentional resources to the prospective memory task. The current study examined the pattern of cost across the ongoing task when the ongoing task provided contextual information that in turn allowed participants to anticipate when target events would occur within the ongoing task. The availability of contextual information reduced ongoing task response times overall, with an increase in response times closer to the target locations (Experiments 1-3). The fourth study, drawing on the Event Segmentation Theory, provided support for the proposal made by the Preparatory Attentional and Memory Processes theory of prospective memory that decisions about the allocation of attention to the prospective memory task are more likely to be made at points of transition. (PsycINFO Database Record

An implementation intention strategy can improve prospective memory in older adults with very mild Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES

This study tested whether (1) very mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with impaired prospective memory (PM) for tasks that are supported by either spontaneous retrieval (focal PM) or strategic monitoring (non-focal PM) and (2) implementation intention (II) encoding could improve PM performance in very mild AD.

DESIGN

Thirty-eight healthy older adults and 34 with very mild AD were randomly assigned to perform two PM tasks in either the standard or the II encoding condition.

METHOD

All participants performed blocks of category decision in which they were asked to respond to a focal PM target (e.g., the word 'orange') and a non-focal PM target (e.g., words that begin with the letter 'o'). Half of the participants encoded PM instructions in the standard manner, while the other half had a stronger encoding by forming IIs. PM accuracy and category decision accuracy and reaction times were measured.

RESULTS

Participants with very mild AD showed deficits in both focal and non-focal PM performance compared to the healthy controls, reflecting deficits in both spontaneous retrieval and strategic monitoring. Participants with very mild AD in the II encoding condition showed better focal PM performance relative to those in the standard encoding condition.

CONCLUSIONS

Deficits in both focal and non-focal PM are associated with very mild AD and IIs may be a helpful behavioural intervention for the focal PM deficits.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

Multiple deficits in PM are observable in very mild AD. Implementation intentions may enhance focal PM in very mild AD. Future research using larger samples is needed to better understand the effect of II on non-focal PM tasks in healthy older adults and those with very mild AD. The use of simple laboratory PM tasks may limit the generality of our findings. Future research is needed to investigate whether IIs improve PM over a range of more realistic tasks.

Forming implementation intentions improves prospective memory in early psychosis

The study examined whether individuals with early psychosis are impaired in prospective memory (PM), that is, remembering to execute a planned intention in the future, and whether implementation intentions can improve their PM performance. Thirty participants with early psychosis and 33 healthy controls were randomly allocated to either an implementation intentions or control condition and completed a computerised event-based PM task. Participants were also administered two standardised tests of PM and an abbreviated IQ test. Results demonstrated that individuals with early psychosis showed PM deficits relative to healthy controls on the computerised PM task and on some standardised measures of PM. The PM performance of the early psychosis group benefited from forming implementation intentions. Implementation intentions was concluded to be an effective strategy for improving PM performance in individuals with early psychosis.

The effect of implementation intention on prospective memory: a systematic and meta-analytic review

Prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to perform a planned action at a future time. Implementation intention is an encoding method in the form of "if situation Y is encountered, then I will initiate the goal-directed behavior X". It has been applied to improve PM performances. The present study conducted a systematic and meta-analytic review on the effect and mechanism of implementation intention on PM. In the meta-analysis, 36 comparisons were included. The results showed that for healthy young adults, the overall effect of implementation intention in improving PM performances was significant with a medium effect size (d = 0.445). The combined verbal and imagery form of implementation intention had a relatively larger effect size (d = 0.590). For older adults, implementation intention had a medium to large effect size on their PM performances (d = 0.680). As for the mechanism, implementation intention seemed to reduce ongoing task performances in young adults as reflected by longer reaction time (d = 0.224) though the effect size was small. The present study supports the positive effect of implementation intention on PM. The mechanism and potential implications of this promising strategy especially for clinical/sub-clinical people are discussed.

Hierarchical Multinomial Modeling Approaches: An Application to Prospective Memory and Working Memory

Hierarchical extensions of multinomial processing tree (MPT) models have been developed to deal with heterogeneity in participants or items. In this study, the beta-MPT model ( J. B. Smith & Batchelder, 2010 ) and the latent-trait approach ( Klauer, 2010 ) were used to estimate individual model parameters for prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory (PM), which requires remembering to perform an action in the future. The data from two experiments investigating the relationship between PM and working memory ( R. E. Smith & Bayen, 2005 , Experiment 1; R. E. Smith, Persyn, & Butler, 2011 ) were reanalyzed using the two hierarchical modeling approaches, both of which provide parameter estimates for individual participants. The results showed a positive correlation of the prospective component of PM with working-memory span and provide the first direct comparisons of the two hierarchical extensions of an MPT model.