Validation of the Hong Kong Chinese Virtual Reality Prospective Memory Shopping Task in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Prospective memory (PM)—the ability to remember to carry out intended actions in the future—is crucial for maintaining independent everyday functioning in late adulthood, and PM deficits are well documented in older adults and in those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Building on evidence that ecologically oriented and VR based PM tasks offer higher verisimilitude and veridicality than traditional laboratory paradigms, this project aims to develop and validate a three dimensional, Unity based Virtual Reality Prospective Memory Shopping Task for Hong Kong Chinese older adults (VRPMST HK). The task situates time and event based PM demands within a culturally relevant virtual shopping street environment, allowing automated recording of PM hits, omissions, and ongoing task performance during realistic errands. Older adults with MCI and cognitively healthy controls will complete standard clinical PM and cognitive measures, including the validated CAMPROMPT HKCV, alongside the VRPMST HK. The study will examine the feasibility and acceptability of the VRPMST HK, its reliability, and its concurrent and discriminant validity in differentiating MCI from healthy aging and in predicting everyday functioning. By establishing the psychometric properties and clinical utility of a locally adapted VR PM tool, this project seeks to provide a sensitive, ecologically valid assessment for detecting everyday PM difficulties in older Hong Kong adults and to lay groundwork for future VR based intervention studies.