Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.
Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva.
Psychol Aging. 2023 Nov;38(7):684-695. doi: 10.1037/pag0000751. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
Research into prospective memory suggests that older adults may face particular difficulties remembering delayed intentions. One way to mitigate these difficulties is by using external reminders but relatively little is known about age-related differences in such cognitive offloading strategies. We examined younger and older adults' ( = 88) performance on a memory task where they chose between remembering delayed intentions with internal memory (earning maximum reward per item) or external reminders (earning a reduced reward). This allowed us to distinguish (a) the absolute number of reminders used versus (b) the proreminder or antireminder bias, compared with each individual's optimal strategy. Older adults used more reminders overall, as might be expected, because they also had poorer memory performance. However, when compared against the optimal strategy weighing the costs versus benefits of reminders, it was only the younger adults who had a proreminder bias. Younger adults overestimated the benefit of reminders, whereas older adults underestimated it. Therefore, even when aging is associated with increased use of external memory aids overall, it can also be associated with reduced preference for external memory support, relative to the objective need for such support. This age-related difference may be driven at least in part by metacognitive processes, suggesting that metacognitive interventions could lead to improved use of cognitive tools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
前瞻性记忆研究表明，老年人在记忆延迟意图时可能会遇到特别的困难。一种缓解这些困难的方法是使用外部提醒，但关于这种认知卸载策略的年龄相关差异，人们知之甚少。我们研究了年轻和年长成年人（n = 88）在一项记忆任务中的表现，他们可以选择通过内部记忆（每项获得最高奖励）或外部提醒（获得降低的奖励）来记住延迟的意图。这使我们能够区分（a）与（b）相比，与每个人的最佳策略相比，使用的外部提醒的绝对数量和提前提醒或反提醒偏差。正如预期的那样，老年人总体上使用了更多的提醒，因为他们的记忆表现也较差。然而，与权衡提醒成本与收益的最佳策略相比，只有年轻成年人存在提前提醒偏差。年轻人高估了提醒的好处，而老年人则低估了它。因此，即使随着年龄的增长，总体上与更多地使用外部记忆辅助工具相关，它也可能与对外部记忆支持的偏好降低相关，而不是对这种支持的客观需求。这种与年龄相关的差异至少部分可能是由元认知过程驱动的，这表明元认知干预可能会导致更好地使用认知工具。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2023 APA，保留所有权利）。
