A-171: Behavioral Performance on Novel Cue-Based Prospective Memory Tasks and Their Neuropsychological Correlates
Abstract
Objective: Successful prospective memory (PM) retrieval is the act of remembering to do something in the future. It involves an interplay of multiple cognitive processes that vary by nature and demands of the task. We developed two novel cue-based PM tasks (Animal cued-Prospective Retrieval Task; Ac-PRT and Object cued-Prospective Retrieval Task; Oc-PRT) that involve semantic judgment of picture stimuli. This feasibility study examined the relationship between behavioral performance on the tasks and performance on standardized cognitive tests. Method/Data Selection: Twenty-three young adults (age: 20.48 ± 2.35 years) completed two PM tasks where participants were instructed to retrieve a PM intention based on previously encoded intention. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy were calculated. Participants underwent cognitive testing with measures of episodic memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning, Benson Figure Copy, Craft Story-21), language (Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System and Boston Naming), and executive function (Stroop, Trail Making Test A;TMT-A and Trail Making Test B;TMT-B, Digit Span-Backward). Results/Data Synthesis: Correlations between retrieval performance on the newly developed PM tasks and cognitive measures revealed a positive relationship between time taken to complete TMT-B and RT in Oc-PRT suggesting executive function, such as flexibility and set-shifting demands, influences efficiency of retrieval. Additionally, positive correlation between verbal fluency and accuracy on retrieval trials, in both tasks, highlight role of language-mediated semantic processing in successful intention retrieval. Conclusions: The findings provide preliminary evidence to the contribution of multiple cognitive systems to cue-based PM retrieval. The performance on novel tasks indicate that successful cue based PM depends on both executive function and language mediated semantic processing, supporting a multi component view of PM retrieval.