A procedure for testing prospective remembering in persons with neurological impairments

A video-based procedure for assessing prospective remembering (PR) in brain-injured clients is described. In this task, a list of instructions is given, each comprising an action (buy a hamburger) and a cue (at McDonalds), which are to be recalled while watching a videotape segment showing the view of a person walking through a shopping area. A group of 12 clients with varying degrees of memory impairment undergoing rehabilitation completed both a video test and a comparable task in real-life. Significant correlations were found between the two measures, indicating that a video-based analogue can be used to estimate prospective remembering in real life. Scores on the PR task were associated with accuracy of recall on a word-list task, but not with the Working Memory Index of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III, suggesting that the task is sensitive to levels of amnesic deficit.