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Sustained and Transient Processes in Event-based Prospective Memory in Adolescence and Adulthood
Lucía Magis-Weinberg1,2, Ruud Custers1,3, Iroise Dumontheil4
1University College London.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|July 10, 2020
Summary
Adolescents and adults use similar strategies for prospective memory (PM), remembering future intentions. However, younger adolescents show some differences in performance and brain activity, indicating ongoing cognitive development.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Prospective memory (PM) involves remembering delayed intentions.
- Developmental trajectories of event-based PM after age 13 are unclear.
- Strategic monitoring versus spontaneous retrieval in PM is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- Compare PM performance and neural correlates in adolescents and adults.
- Investigate the role of cue salience on strategic (proactive) and spontaneous (reactive) control.
- Examine age-related differences in PM implementation.
Main Methods:
- Compared 28 adolescents (12-17) and 19 adults (23-30) on a PM task.
- Manipulated prospective memory (PM) cue salience.
- Measured behavioral performance and sustained/transient neural activity (fMRI).
Main Results:
- Lower cue salience slowed ongoing task performance and increased frontoparietal activation, suggesting greater proactive control.
- Cue salience effects were similar across age groups.
- Younger adolescents, unlike older ones, were less accurate/slower on PM trials and showed greater occipito-temporal activation.
Conclusions:
- Adolescents adapt proactive control to PM demands similarly to adults.
- Early adolescence shows both mature and developing aspects of prospective memory.
- Neural correlates of PM implementation continue to mature through adolescence.
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