Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2011 Oct;39(7):1232-40. doi: 10.3758/s13421-011-0106-z.
Prospective remembering is partially supported by cue-driven spontaneous retrieval processes. We investigated spontaneous retrieval processes in younger and older adults by presenting prospective memory target cues during a lexical decision task following instructions that the prospective memory task was finished. Spontaneous retrieval was inferred from slowed lexical decision responses to target cues (i.e., intention interference). When the intention was finished, younger adults efficiently deactivated their intention, but the older adults continued to retrieve their intentions. Levels of inhibitory functioning were negatively associated with intention interference in the older adult group, but not in the younger adult group. These results indicate that normal aging might not compromise spontaneous retrieval processes but that the ability to deactivate completed intentions is impaired.
前瞻性记忆部分受到提示驱动的自发检索过程的支持。我们通过在词汇判断任务中呈现前瞻性记忆目标提示，同时告知参与者前瞻性记忆任务已经完成，以此来研究年轻和年长成人的自发检索过程。自发检索是从对目标提示的词汇判断反应较慢（即意图干扰）推断出来的。当意图完成时，年轻成年人能够有效地停用他们的意图，但年长成年人则继续检索他们的意图。在年长成人组中，抑制功能水平与意图干扰呈负相关，但在年轻成人组中则没有。这些结果表明，正常衰老可能不会影响自发检索过程，但完成意图的停用能力会受损。
