Griffith Health Institute and School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, Queensland, Australia.
Neuropsychol Rehabil. 2013;23(1):45-63. doi: 10.1080/09602011.2012.716761. Epub 2012 Sep 13.
This study examined the effects of aging, planning, and interruption on complex prospective memory (PM) using a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design. Participants were 80 younger adults (65 females) aged 18-33 years and 80 older adults (70 females) aged 60-75 years. They were randomly allocated to four conditions (viz., no interruption and no planning, interruption but no planning, planning but no interruption, and both planning and interruption) and asked to undertake three PM tasks (time-, event-, and activity-based) while performing an ongoing task (viz., recipe checking and identification) in a simulated home environment. Younger adults were found to perform significantly better than older adults on time- and event-based PM. The opportunity to plan for five minutes was found to improve performances on all three types of PM. Unexpected, external interruptions, on the other hand, were found to reduce performance for time-based PM. Interestingly, planning was found to significantly improve the performance of older adults on time-based PM and to a level similar to that of younger adults. Results of the study have clarified the independent and interactive effects of the three variables on PM and have implications for understanding and enhancing this type of memory.
本研究采用 2x2x2 被试间设计，考察了老化、计划和中断对复杂前瞻性记忆 (PM) 的影响。参与者为 80 名年轻成年人（65 名女性，年龄 18-33 岁）和 80 名老年成年人（70 名女性，年龄 60-75 岁）。他们被随机分配到四个条件（即无中断无计划、中断无计划、有计划无中断和既有计划又有中断），并要求在模拟家庭环境中执行一项正在进行的任务（即检查和识别食谱）的同时完成三项 PM 任务（基于时间、事件和活动的 PM）。年轻成年人在基于时间和基于事件的 PM 上的表现明显优于老年成年人。有机会进行五分钟的计划被发现可以提高所有三种类型的 PM 的表现。另一方面，意外的外部中断被发现会降低基于时间的 PM 的表现。有趣的是，计划被发现可以显著提高老年成年人在基于时间的 PM 上的表现，并使其达到与年轻成年人相似的水平。研究结果阐明了这三个变量对 PM 的独立和交互影响，并对理解和增强这种类型的记忆具有启示意义。
