Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to carry out one's intentions. This is a critical ability for children to develop in order to function independently in their daily activities. This dissertation examines the role of executive functioning in preschoolers' PM in two studies that vary the executive demand at different stages of the PM task. Study 1 investigated the role of task difficulty during the retention interval prior to the PM task. A difficult working memory task during the delay period resulted in worse PM performance in 4- and 5-year-olds compared to an easy working memory task. In addition, children's working memory, planning ability, and theory of mind correlated with PM but only in the difficult filler task condition. Study 2 examined age differences between 4- and 5-year-olds in PM task performance when the task: (1) was embedded in an easy or difficult ongoing task, (2) had an instruction to focus on the intention versus an instruction to focus on the distractor activity during the retention interval, and (3) varied in the salience of prospective targets. Overall, 5-year-olds performed better on the PM task than 4-year-olds. Children also had superior PM when targets were salient compared to non-salient and marginally superior PM when they received an instruction to monitor their intention compared to when they received an instruction to focus on the distractor activity. In addition, positive relations between executive functioning and PM were documented. Taken together, these studies suggest that disrupting or encouraging monitoring has a direct impact on PM performance in certain conditions. The implications of these results for theories that suggest differing roles for controlled processes in PM are discussed.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:49:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-01-27. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:25:32Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-00397.pdf: 509322 bytes, checksum: 8765f9f67f3ef7c3f01f454555979a6a (MD5) / O Questionário de Memória Prospectiva e Retrospectiva (QMPR) foi construído para avaliar memória subjetiva e para ter confiabilidade aceitável e validade fatorial, preditiva e concorrente. Entretanto, o QMPR nunca foi administrado numa amostra probabilística representativa da população em todas as idades na fase adulta, nem existem estudos precedentes controlados para os fatores que são conhecidos por influenciar a metamemória, tal como o status afetivo. Neste estudo, o QMPR foi aplicado em três estágios probabilísticos numa amostra representativa da população de São Paulo, Brasil, de acordo com o sexo, a idade (20-80 anos), e o status econômico (n=1042). Em seguida, com a exclusão dos indivíduos que tiveram as condições que prejudicam a memória (depressão, ansiedade, uso de psicotrópicos, e/ou teve desordens neurológicas/psiquiátricas), permaneceram 664 indivíduos em que: a) aplicaram-se análises fatoriais confirmatórias para testar modelos competidores da estrutura latente do QMPR; b) estudaram-se efeitos de sexo, da idade, da educação e do status econômico nas queixas de memória prospectiva e retrospectiva. O modelo com o melhor ajuste teve a mesma estrutura tripartida (um fator geral da memória e dois fatores ortogonais da memória prospectiva e retrospectiva) . As mulheres queixaram-se mais dos lapsos gerais da memória, em especial aquelas nos primeiros 5 anos após a menopausa, e houve mais queixas de memória prospectiva do que retrospectiva, exceto em participantes com renda familiar mais baixa. / The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) has been shown to assess subjective memory and to have acceptable reliability and factorial, predictive and concurrent validity. However, the PRMQ has never been administered to a probability sample survey representative of all ages in adulthood, nor have previous studies controlled for factors that are known to influence metamemory, such as affective status. This study, the PRMQ was applied in a survey adopting a probabilistic three-stage cluster sample representative of the population of São Paulo, Brazil, according to sex, age (20- 80 years), and economic status (n=1042). After excluding subjects who had conditions that impair memory (depression, anxiety, used psychotropics, and/or had neurological/psychiatric disorders), in the remaining 664 individuals: a) applied confirmatory factor analyses to test competing models of the latent structure of the PRMQ; b) studied effects of sex, age, schooling and economic status on prospective and retrospective memory complaints. The model with the best fit had the same tripartite structure (general memory factor and two orthogonal prospective and retrospective memory factors). Women complained more of general memory slips, especially those in the first 5 years after menopause, and there were more complaints of prospective than retrospective memory, except in participants with lower family income. / TEDE

Discover how the future will be has traditionally been a task entrusted to wizards and soothsayers. However, men and women of science—through the prospective discipline and research in future scenarios—have also faced the problem from a particularly different way. The educational phenomenon—not being aware of this concern about tomorrow—also becomes the object of study to establish guidelines for relevant strategic planning and foresight. In the following paragraphs, we will address future studies related to higher education with a proposed approach to the ethodologies used and we will seek to identify the convergence of future scenarios. Finally, to offer a significant contribution, we will propose some general strategies that universities must consider anticipating future challenges and difficulties / Descubrir cómo será el porvenir ha sido una tarea tradicionalmente encargada a brujos y adivinos. Sin embargo, hombres y mujeres de ciencia, mediante la disciplina prospectiva y la investigación de escenarios futuros, también han encarado el problema desde un enfoque particularmente diferente. El fenómeno educativo —al no ser ajeno a esta preocupación por el mañana— se convierte en objeto de estudio con miras a establecer lineamientos para una pertinente planeación estratégica y prospectiva.En las próximas líneas, abordaremos los estudios de futuro vinculados a la educación superior proponiendo una aproximación a las metodologías empleadas,identificando algunas convergencias para los escenarios de los próximos años y proponiendo —como aporte significativo— algunas estrategias generales que las universidades deben considerar previendo retos y dificultades futuras

This dissertation describes separate but related studies that explore the prospective memory abilities of older adults and individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment/Early Alzheimer’s disease. Prospective memory (PM) refers to the type of memory utilized to execute planned actions in accordance with a specific event. PM is critical to maintaining functional independence in older adults, as it can refer to such basic acts as remembering to turn off a stove or taking one’s medication. Research suggests PM abilities decline within normal aging and to a greater extent in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Together, the studies assessed and compared the PM abilities across healthy younger and older adults, individuals with MCI, and individuals with early AD while exploring two major theories that seek to explain PM retrieval. The preparatory attentional and memory process theory of PM (PAM) assumes that PM retrieval requires resource-demanding preparatory attentional processes, whereas the Dynamic Multiprocess theory (DMPT) assumes that retrieval can also occur spontaneously (Scullin, McDaniel, & Shelton, 2013; Smith & Bayen, 2006). Study 1 used a novel laboratory PM task in which the focality and the frequency of PM cues were manipulated to compare the PM abilities of cognitively healthy younger and older adults. The results revealed significant differences in the patterns of performance between the younger and older adults based on the focality and frequency of cues which indicated different attentional allocation strategies. Study 2 examined the impact of cognitive impairment on PM abilities by using the same paradigm to compare the performance of cognitively healthy older adults to individuals with MCI and early AD. The results again revealed significant differences in the patterns of performance which indicated that these groups may have used different strategies of attentional allocation depending on the focality and cue frequency. Taken together, the findings in Studies 1 and 2 were mixed with respect to the predictions of the DMPT and PAM. The MCI group, in particular, demonstrated a unique performance profile that suggests the neuropathophysiological changes associated with this diagnosis may lead to the reliance on different PM retrieval processes compared to healthy older adults. Finally, Study 3 explored the use of a more naturalistic and ecologically valid PM task to compare the PM performance of individuals with MCI and early AD to healthy older adults without cognitive impairment. The results showed that, after taking the learning and retrospective memory scores into account, the significant differences between groups in PM accuracy on this task can mostly be accounted for by these factors. Nevertheless, the AD group was found to display significantly lower PM accuracy with event-based cues with a weak association between cue and action compared to the older adult and MCI groups after controlling for these factors. These findings provide valuable theoretical, methodological, and clinical contributions which will be discussed.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(社会健康医学) / 乙第13293号 / 論社医博第14号 / 新制||社医||10(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科社会健康医学系専攻 / (主査)教授 松田 秀一, 教授 今中 雄一, 教授 古川 壽亮 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Public Health / Kyoto University / DFAM

The Daily Assessment Form (OAF) retrospectively assessed symptoms of late luteal phase dysphoric disorder (LLPDD), both at the beginning and at the end of a 2-month time interval. Ninety-four women between the ages of 18 and 45 entered the study. Half of the subjects viewed a negative-case, stereotypic presentation of LLPDD prior to the pretest. sixty-eight subjects qualified on the pretest to complete the study. Half of the remaining no-case subjects and half of the remaining negative-case subjects completed 8 weeks' prospective ratings via the OAF. Forty-eight subjects remained to complete the posttest at the end of that time interval. Pretest Total and Pretest Criteria scores revealed significant main effects for case-presentation condition (E[l,63] = 7.08, R = .01) and (E[l,63] = 8.34, R = .01) and completion level (E[l,63] = 6.76, R = .01) and (E[l,63] = 3.76, R .06). Effect sizes equalled 0.48 and 0.45 for case presentation and 1.92 and 1.98 for completion.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第21298号 / 医博第4387号 / 新制||医||1030(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 中川 一路, 教授 木原 正博, 教授 小池 薫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a prospective cohort study during early pregnancy (<24 weeks gestation) examining the psychological factors associated with excessive pregnancy weight gain. Study Design: Women who had at least 1 prenatal care visit, had a live singleton gestation and were able to read English were eligible to enroll in the study. Women completed the self-administered survey at their prenatal clinics in Hamilton and Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Final pregnancy weight was obtained from women’s clinical charts. Results: All approached clinics agreed to participate in the study (100% clinic agreement). Five hundred thirty women completed the enrolment survey, which was a 90.0% uptake rate. An average of 6 women enrolled each week at less than 24 weeks gestation. Less than 10% of data were missing for all survey questions and outcome data (final pregnancy weight) was available for all but one participant (97.3%). Final pregnancy weights were obtained a median of 1.0 days (interquartile 0.0-3.5 days) prior to delivery. No psychological factors were significantly associated with the odds of gaining above the 2009 IOM/Health Canada guidelines in the exploratory univariate analysis. Conclusion: All feasibility outcomes demonstrated that conducting a full-scale study in Southwestern Ontario would be feasible. Conducting a full-scale study may identify associations between psychological factors and excessive pregnancy weight gain. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Background: The city of Manaus, Brazil, has seen two collapses of the health system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We report anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid IgG antibody seroconversion rates and associated risk factors in Manaus residents before the second wave of the epidemic in Brazil. Methods: A convenience sample of adult (aged ≥18 years) residents of Manaus was recruited through online and university website advertising into the DETECTCoV-19 study cohort. The current analysis of seroconversion included a subgroup of DETECTCoV-19 participants who had at least two serum sample collections separated by at least 4 weeks between Aug 19 and Oct 2, 2020 (visit 1), and Oct 19 and Nov 27, 2020 (visit 2). Those who reported (or had no data on) having a COVID-19 diagnosis before visit 1, and who were positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid IgG antibodies at visit 1 were excluded. Using an in-house ELISA, the reactivity index (RI; calculated as the optical density ratio of the sample to the negative control) for serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid IgG antibodies was measured at both visits. We calculated the incidence of seroconversion (defined as RI values ≤1·5 at visit 1 and ≥1·5 at visit 2, and a ratio >2 between the visit 2 and visit 1 RI values) during the study period, as well as incidence rate ratios (IRRs) through cluster-corrected and adjusted Poisson regression models to analyse associations between seroconversion and variables related to sociodemographic characteristics, health access, comorbidities, COVID-19 exposure, protective behaviours, and symptoms. Findings: 2496 DETECTCoV-19 cohort participants returned for a follow-up visit between Oct 19 and Nov 27, 2020, of whom 204 reported having COVID-19 before the first visit and 24 had no data regarding previous disease status. 559 participants were seropositive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid IgG antibodies at baseline. Of the remaining 1709 participants who were seronegative at baseline, 71 did not meet the criteria for seroconversion and were excluded from the analyses. Among the remaining 1638 participants who were seronegative at baseline, 214 showed seroconversion at visit 2. The seroconversion incidence was 13·06% (95% CI 11·52–14·79) overall and 6·78% (5·61–8·10) for symptomatic seroconversion, over a median follow-up period of 57 days (IQR 54–61). 48·1% of seroconversion events were estimated to be asymptomatic. The sample had higher proportions of affluent and higher-educated people than those reported for the Manaus city population. In the fully adjusted and corrected model, risk factors for seroconversion before visit 2 were having a COVID-19 case in the household (IRR 1·49 [95% CI 1·21–1·83]), not wearing a mask during contact with a person with COVID-19 (1·25 [1·09–1·45]), relaxation of physical distancing (1·31 [1·05–1·64]), and having flu-like symptoms (1·79 [1·23–2·59]) or a COVID-19 diagnosis (3·57 [2·27–5·63]) between the first and second visits, whereas working remotely was associated with lower incidence (0·74 [0·56–0·97]). Interpretation: An intense infection transmission period preceded the second wave of COVID-19 in Manaus. Several modifiable behaviours increased the risk of seroconversion, including non-compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions measures such as not wearing a mask during contact, relaxation of protective measures, and non-remote working. Increased testing in high-transmission areas is needed to provide timely information about ongoing transmission and aid appropriate implementation of transmission mitigation measures. Funding: Ministry of Education, Brazil; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas; Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/WHO. / World Health Organization / Revisión por pares

In personal task management, individual tasks are susceptible to failure at various stages due to failures in prospective memory, information fragmentation, and/or cognitive overload. To alleviate the troubles that occur in personal task management, people use various tools such as notifications and external memory aids, but there is still room for improvement in regards to maintaining distributed cognitive artifacts such as calendars and to-do lists. Improvement in staying abreast of this personal task information as opposed to being alerted of it in individual instances was the topic of exploration in this work. TaskAmbient is an ambient information display system that was designed to address these problems. TaskAmbient supports retention of individual task knowledge as well as retention of task knowledge in a user's different areas of responsibility. With this tool, I observed usage to verify or deny its ability to support prospective memory and combat the problems associated with information fragmentation and cognitive overload in respect to personal task management. In this research, studies were conducted to learn about personal task management practices and how TaskAmbient was used. In conducting these studies, I found that TaskAmbient provided value in retaining task information and staying aware of tasks in a user's various areas of responsibility. TaskAmbient showed the extendibility to other domains of personal information management. / Master of Science