Relationship of cognitive strategy use to prospective memory performance in a diverse sample of nondemented older adults with varying degrees of cognitive complaints and impairment

Abstract

Although older adults typically have better performance on prospective memory (PM) tasks carried out in naturalistic settings, a paucity of research directly assesses older adults’ use of compensatory strategies on such tasks. The current study investigates external memory strategy use during performance of a clinical PM test that features both short-term (in laboratory) and long-term (out of laboratory) subtasks (i.e., the Royal Prince Alfred Prospective Memory Test – RPA-ProMem. Nondemented, community-dwelling older adults (n = 214; mean age = 80.5; 68.2% female; 39.7% non-white) with mild cognitive impairment, subjective cognitive decline, and healthy controls completed the RPA-ProMem while external strategy use was permitted and recorded. Overall, participants utilized external strategies 41% of the time on the RPA-ProMem. Increased utilization of external memory strategies was significantly associated with better PM performance. Additionally, better performance on executive functioning tasks was associated with increased use of external memory strategies. Results are discussed in relation to how memory strategy use can be enhanced to improve everyday memory ability in older adults at risk for dementia.

Keywords:

• memory strategy use
• external memory strategies
• prospective memory
• subjective cognitive decline
• mild cognitive impairment

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Ashu Kapoor, Milushka Elbulok-Charcape, Valdiva Da Silva, Tangeria Adams, Erica Meltzer, Krystal Mendez, John Flynn, Nicole Belgrave, Hayoung Ryu, Charlotte Magnotta, Wendy Ramratan, Dr. Cuiling Wang, Dr. Richard Lipton, and Mindy Katz for their contributions.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging [AG03949]; National Institute of General Medical Sciences [SC2AG039235]; Alzheimer’s Association [NIRG-11-206369]; National Science Foundation [NSF Award #1156870]; Czap Foundation; and The Leonard and Sylvia Marx Foundation.