Preprint · Jan 20, 2019
Naturalistic assessments in virtual reality and in real life help resolve the age-prospective memory paradox
By Rose NS, Saito JM
For over 40 years, cognitive aging researchers have reported “paradoxical” age differences in prospective memory (PM)—memory for delayed intentions—with age deficits in laboratory settings and age benefits (or no deficits) in real-world settings. We propose a theoretical account that explains this “age-PM-paradox” as a consequence of age-related differences in cognitive abilities and personality traits amongst younger and older adults. To test this account, we asked younger (18-30 years) and older (56-83 years) adults (N = 111) to perform a series of naturalistic PM tasks in the lab and real-world. Age-related deficits were observed on a Job Simulator VR task, in which participants role-played as a short-order cook and convenience-store clerk, and on a lab-based Breakfast task, in which participants simulated preparing food, drinks, and table-settings for a large meal. In contrast, older adults performed equal to or better than younger adults on a Belongings task, in which participants remembered to exchange personal belongings with the experimenter, and on a Call-Back task, in which they returned phone calls at specific times after leaving the lab in real life. Consistent with our developmental account, these “paradoxical” effects were partially mediated by age-related differences in working memory and agreeableness for lab-based settings, and by vigilance and neuroticism in real-world settings. These results advance a theoretical account of the age-PM paradox based on differential moderators across task settings.