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When Distraction Holds Relevance: A Prospective Memory Benefit for Older Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Joana S. Lourenço

    (Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK)

  • Elizabeth A. Maylor

    (Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK)

Abstract

Evidence is accumulating to show that age-related increases in susceptibility to distracting information can benefit older more than young adults in several cognitive tasks. Here we focus on prospective memory ( i.e. , remembering to carry out future intentions) and examine the effect of presenting distracting information that is intention-related as a function of age. Young and older adults performed an ongoing 1-back working memory task to a rapid stream of pictures superimposed with to-be-ignored letter strings. Participants were additionally instructed to respond to target pictures (namely, animals) and, for half of the participants, some strings prior to the targets were intention-related words ( i.e. , animals). Results showed that presenting intention-related distracting information during the ongoing task was particularly advantageous for target detection in older compared to young adults. Moreover, a prospective memory benefit was observed even for older adults who showed no explicit memory for the target distracter words. We speculate that intention-related distracter information enhanced the accessibility of the prospective memory task and suggest that when distracting information holds relevance to intentions it can serve a compensatory role in prospective remembering in older adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Joana S. Lourenço & Elizabeth A. Maylor, 2015. "When Distraction Holds Relevance: A Prospective Memory Benefit for Older Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:6:p:6523-6541:d:50864
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bob Uttl, 2008. "Transparent Meta-Analysis of Prospective Memory and Aging," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(2), pages 1-28, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahreum Lee & Hokyoung Ryu & Jae-Kwan Kim & Eunju Jeong, 2018. "Multisensory Integration Strategy for Modality-Specific Loss of Inhibition Control in Older Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, April.

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