Intraindividual reaction time variability predicts prospective memory failures in older adults

This study investigated the relationship between intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction time and prospective memory errors in older adults using data from the Zurich Longitudinal Study of Cognitive Aging (n = 336 individuals aged 66-81 years). The results indicated that increased IIV measured from independent tasks was associated with a greater proportion of prospective memory errors. These significant findings were not influenced by age and did not vary according to prospective memory cue type. Variability is thought to reflect fluctuations in attentional and executive control and these attentional processes may also impact on prospective memory through failure to detect the target cue. The findings suggest, therefore, that measures of variability may have some potential in the identification of older persons who are more vulnerable to everyday errors such as prospective memory failures.