Individual differences in prospective memory

Hunter Ball, Anne Vogel, Gene A. Brewer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter reviews individual differences in prospective memory (PM) in two domains: healthy aging and psychopathology. It highlights evidence for the idea that individuals differ in their PM ability because of variability in both attention-based processes and long-term memory. Age-related declines in PM are non-trivial, as every day PM tasks are critical for maintaining independence. Age-related declines in attentional abilities may put older adults at risk for other types of PM failures. PM is critical for a variety of clinical populations because failures could be detrimental to one’s health, like forgetting to take one’s seizure medication, or taking too much medication by accident. Episodic memory ability is another critical mechanism for successful PM. Many clinical populations display episodic memory impairment, but perhaps the population with the most notable deficits are those suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia. Many individual differences studies in college-aged samples have examined correlations between PM target detection and various cognitive ability measures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProspective Memory
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages116-134
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9781351000147
ISBN (Print)9781138545809
DOIs
StatePublished - May 21 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology
  • General Neuroscience

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