Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 30, 2025

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
Published on: July 16, 2015
Age-Related Differences in Intentional Forgetting of Prospective Memory
Meral Bozdemir1, Sevtap Cinan2
152981 Department of Psychology, Maltepe Universitesi, Istanbul, Turkey.
Abstract:
This study investigated age-related differences in intentional forgetting (IF) of prospective memory (memory for actions to be performed in the future) in young (19-30 years) and late-midlife adults (LMA; 57-75 years). Prospective memory (PM) performance was examined by using the Virtual Week (VW) Task. An IF procedure was embedded into the VW task and the participants were instructed to forget some of the PM tasks that they were to remember and execute later on a virtual day. The study compared performances of the young and the LMA participants in the context of event- or time-based regular and irregular tasks. The results confirmed previous findings in showing that LMA participants exhibited worse PM than younger participants in lab-based tasks. In addition, although PM and IF performances separately have been shown to be affected by cognitive aging, larger age-related differences were not found in PM performance under IF conditions.
Related Concept Videos
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...
Forgetting
Encoding...
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory
Implicit Memories
One key aspect of implicit...
Role of Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex in Memory
Amnesia
The severity and duration of memory loss vary depending on the type and underlying cause. Amnesia is classified into two main types: retrograde and anterograde.
Retrograde amnesia is marked by the loss of memories formed before the onset of the condition. Patients may recall distant past events but often forget those occurring shortly before the incident.
Anterograde...

