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Prospective memory refers to remembering to carry out an intended or planned action, such as keeping a doctor's appointment or telling a friend about an upcoming party. Despite its importance in everyday life, prospective memory has received little empirical or theoretical attention. Rather, much of the literature has focused on retrospective memory, that is, memory for information learnt in the past. The current literature on prospective memory addresses five aspects that are necessary for carrying out an intended action. These are (a) formulating the plan; (b) having the knowledge necessary to carry out the plan; (c) remembering the plan at the appropriate time; (d) carrying out the plan; and (e) remembering that the plan has been performed. The literature also raises three fundamental questions. Namely, whether prospective and retrospective memory involve different processes, whether self-report and behavioral measures of prospective memory are correlated, and whether prospective memory performance varies as a function of age. These questions were the focus of the exploratory studies presented in this dissertation. The first three studies involved the development of a memory diary, a memory questionnaire, and a metamemory questionnaire, respectively. These instruments were used in the fourth and fifth studies. Studies 4 and 5 also included behavioral measures of prospective memory and objective measures of retrospective memory. The fourth study examined how community-dwelling adults feel about, and use, their memory on a daily basis. In accordance with previous research, no age differences were observed on the behavioral measures of prospective memory. Moreover, performance on the self-report measures did not differ as a function of age. As hypothesized, age was correlated with performance on a retrospective memory task. The fifth study involved an extension and replication of Study 4, with the major addition being the use of several standard laboratory tests to assess retrospective memory. This study revealed several interesting findings. First, in contrast to previous studies, performance on some retrospective memory tasks was related to performance on some prospective memory tasks. Second, by and large, self-report and behavioral measures of prospective memory were not correlated. Third, performance on the prospective memory tasks (both self-report and behavioral) did not vary as a function of age, although performance ' on the retrospective memory tasks was clearly age related. The implications of this research are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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This study examined the influence of experimentally induced mood change on the learning and recall of a list of pleasant and unpleasant daily events in young (18-35 years) and old (58-75 years) women. Mild mood changes were induced by having 166 subjects read emotionally descriptive accounts of tragic or uplifting life experiences. For half the subjects, the mood induction was presented before they learned a list describing 15 pleasant and 15 unpleasant daily events. For the remaining subjects, the mood induction occurred before they recalled the list. Baseline memory performance was assessed by having all subjects learn and recall one list in a neutral mood. Two dependent variables were used to look at mood induced changes in level (Total recall) and content (Affective Bias = Pleasant Events - Unpleasant events) of memory recall. Only the 128 subjects who met prespecified criteria for mood change were used in these analyses. Compared to performance in the neutral mood condition, significant mood content effects were observed only for negative moods induced at time of recall. Equivalent changes in affective bias were found across age groups, however, were due to increased recall of mood congruent memory items for the young, and decreased recall of mood incongruent memory items for the old. This mood content effect contributed to an overall decrease in total recall for old participants that was not found for young subjects. Because significant group differences in baseline memory performance were found between and within age groups, analysis of covariance was employed, using baseline memory performance as a covariate. No differences in the pattern of significant effects were found. Similarly, the use of pre-experimental mood, verbal ability, and affective response to the memory stimuli as covariates did not change the results, suggesting observed age differences in mood-induced memory change could not be attributed to these factors. These findings suggest that the locus of mood congruent memory selectivity occurs at time of retrieval. Mood-related memory cuing appears to be equally effective for young and old. The observed qualitative age differences in mood congruent memory were the reverse of the predicted pattern, however, it was suggested that more effective use of mood control strategies by the older women could have produced these effects. Results also suggest that the elderly may be more sensitive to the disruptive effects of negative mood on memory processing / Graduate

Recall of narrative content was studied in a sample of 170 children ranging from 5 to 11 years of age. Age range was divided into three equal intervals. The children within each interval were randomly assigned to four encoding conditions (symbolic, iconic, enactive, and symbolic-rehearsal) so that any effects of interactions between age-affected cognitive capacities and different encoding conditions could be gauged at 30 seconds and one week (after encoding). Between-ages (within condition) and between conditions (within age) comparisons revealed that age increase was generally, though not uniformly, accompanied by significant recall advantage. Analyses revealed that effects of different encoding conditions were sufficiently variable across the ages that age advantage was diminished when free recall performances of 5-7 year old children in enactive and iconic encoding conditions were compared to free recall performances of older children (9-11 years of age) in symbolic conditions of encoding. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical issues and educational questions. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The types of intrusion errors (Prior List, Semantically Related, and Unrelated) made on the LASSI-L verbal memory task were compared across three diagnostic groups (N = 160, 61 % female), Cognitively Normal (CN), amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Errors related to Proactive, Recovery from Proactive, and Retroactive Interference were also analyzed, as well as the relationship of errors to Amyloid load, a biomarker of AD. Results suggest that the types of error made indicated the level of cognitive decline. It appears that as deficits increase, impaired semantic networks result in the simultaneous activation of items that are semantically related to LASSI-L words. In the aMCI group, providing a semantic cue resulted in an increased production of Semantically Related intrusions. Unrelated intrusions occurred rarely, although, a small number occurred even in the CN group, warranting further investigation. Amyloid load correlated with all intrusion errors. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Decline of memory is often a complaint registered by members of an older adult population. There has been a limited amount of previous research evaluating subjective and objective memory in elderly Asian cultures. The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to memory function among Taiwanese older adults which included the following: the individual’s characteristics, perception of metamemory, degree of memory self-efficacy, and level of memory performance. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study. A proposed conceptual framework, based on the previous literature, was developed as the guideline for the study. Well established instruments were employed in measuring participants’ memory knowledge and attitudes, namely metamemory, (Metamemory in Adulthood), memory self-efficacy (Memory Efficacy), and memory performance (Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test). A non-probability sample of 130 Taiwanese older adults completed the interview. The research findings indicated that the participants reported above average knowledge of memory processes, achievement motivation regarding memory, a good memory capacity, personal control over their memory, and an ability to use memory strategies. In contrast, they perceived their memory as declining over time and were slightly anxious when considering memory tasks. In addition, they displayed a moderate level of confidence about their own memory, with elderly males expressing more confidence than females about their memory abilities. The memory performance of older Taiwanese adults was in the range of poor memory on the Rivermead. Factors contributing to memory function were correlated with each other. As stated above, these were individual characteristics, metamemory and memory self-efficacy. Significant predictors for memory performance were age, education, health status and memory selfefficacy. The results of this study suggested that culture-specific factors regarding memory are vital for older Taiwanese adults to evaluate their own memory. Potential topics for future research include: exploring the meaning of memory with an in-depth interview to distinguish memory self-efficacy from positive adaptation to memory deficit; understanding how memory operates while participants work in pairs rather than individually; and implementing an interventional program for health and cognitive promotion. / text

This experiment investigated memory changes across the adult lifespan and some factors that might be associated with these changes. Adult participants of all ages (16 to 83 years old) were asked to orally describe scenic color photographs, and then following a delay, to re-describe these pictures from memory. Given information is objective, physical objects and their attributes that are depicted in a target picture, whereas beyond information is subjective, personal experiences and inferences that are not depicted in a target picture per se but are associated with a target picture. Chapter 3 examined the content of these picture descriptions for the amount of given and beyond information that was encoded and retrieved about target pictures. The results indicated an age-related decline in memory for given information and preserved memory for beyond information. Chapter 4 examined the relationship between perceptual and verbal ability and memory for given and beyond information. Perceptual ability was assessed by self-report measures of auditory and visual ability and verbal ability was measured by a standardized test. The results indicated that an age-related improvement in verbal ability, but not an age-related decline in perceptual ability, was related to memory for given and beyond information. Chapter 5 explored age-related changes in memory for feminine and masculine information across the adult female lifespan. Feminine and masculine information is information that would be considered exclusively relevant to young women and men, respectively. The results indicated an age-related increase in memory for feminine information and no age-related change in memory for masculine information. The divergent age-related changes in memory for given and beyond information and for feminine and masculine information were interpreted in terms of a developmental approach to schema theory and the lifespan psychology notions of selective optimization with compensation and loss in the service of growth. The present study suggests an integration between the domains of personality and cognitive psychology as one avenue for future research that could lead to a more complete understanding of memory and aging.

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