Modulating prospective memory and attentional control with high-definition transcranial current stimulation: Study protocol of a randomized, double-blind, and sham-controlled trial in healthy older adults.

The ability to remember future intentions (i.e., prospective memory) is influenced by attentional control. At the neuronal level, frontal and parietal brain regions have been related to attentional control and prospective memory. It is debated, however, whether more or less activity in these regions is beneficial for older adults' performance. We will test that by systematically enhancing or inhibiting activity in these regions with anodal or cathodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation in older adults. We will include n = 105 healthy older volunteers (60-75 years of age) in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, and parallel-group design. The participants will receive either cathodal, anodal, or sham high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation of the left or right inferior frontal gyrus, or the right superior parietal gyrus (1mA for 20 min). During and after stimulation, the participants will complete tasks of attentional control and prospective memory. The results of this study will clarify how frontal and parietal brain regions contribute to attentional control and prospective memory in older healthy adults. In addition, we will elucidate the relationship between attentional control and prospective memory in that age group. The study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov on the 12th of May 2021 (trial identifier: NCT04882527).

Metacognitive differentiation of item memory and source memory in schema-based source monitoring.

Item memory and source memory are different aspects of episodic remembering. To investigate metamemory differences between them, the authors assessed systematic differences between predictions of item memory via Judgments of Learning (JOLs) and source memory via Judgments of Source (JOSs). Schema-based expectations affect JOLs and JOSs differently: Judgments are higher for expected source-item pairs (e.g., "nightstand in the bedroom") than unexpected pairs (e.g., "bed in the bathroom"), but this expectancy effect is stronger on JOSs than JOLs (Schaper et al., 2019b). The current study tested theoretical underpinnings of this difference. Due to semantic priming, JOLs should be influenced by the consistency between an item and any of the schemas activated at study. JOSs, however, should be influenced by the (in)consistency between an item and its actual source. In three experiments, source-item pairs varied in strength of consistency and inconsistency. Participants provided item-wise JOLs and JOSs. Regardless of an items' actual source, JOLs were higher the more consistent an item was with any of the source schemas, but only if that schema was activated by occurring as a source at study. JOLs were also biased by the actual source: JOLs were lower the more inconsistent an item was with its actual source. By contrast, JOSs were primarily influenced by an item's (in)consistency with its actual source (positively for consistency, negatively for inconsistency). Thus, participants metacognitively differentiated item memory and source memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Remedying the Metamemory Expectancy Illusion in Source Monitoring: Are there Effects on Restudy Choices and Source Memory?

Metamemory monitoring, study behavior, and memory are presumably causally connected. When people misjudge their memory, their study behavior should be biased accordingly. Remedying metamemory illusions should debias study behavior and improve memory. One metamemory illusion concerns source memory, a critical aspect of episodic memory. People predict better source memory for items that originated from an expected source (e.g., toothbrush in a bathroom) rather than an unexpected source (e.g., shampoo in a kitchen), whereas actual source memory shows the opposite: an inconsistency effect. This expectancy illusion biases restudy choices: Participants restudy more unexpected than expected source-item pairs. The authors tested the causal relationships between metamemory and source memory with a delay and a source-retrieval attempt between study and metamemory judgment to remedy the expectancy illusion and debias restudy choices. Debiased restudy choices should enhance source memory for expected items, thereby reducing the inconsistency effect. Two groups studied expected and unexpected source-item pairs. They made metamemory judgments and restudy choices immediately at study or after delay, restudied the selected pairs, and completed a source-monitoring test. After immediate judgments, participants predicted better source memory for expected pairs and selected more unexpected pairs for restudy. After delayed judgments, participants predicted a null effect of expectancy on source memory and selected equal numbers of expected and unexpected pairs. Thus, the expectancy illusion was partially remedied and restudy choices were debiased. Nevertheless, source memory was only weakly affected. The results challenge the presumed causal relationships between metamemory monitoring, study behavior, and source memory.

Delaying metamemory judgments corrects the expectancy illusion in source monitoring: The role of fluency and belief.

In schema-based source monitoring, people mistakenly predict better source memory for expected sources (e.g., oven in the kitchen; expectancy effect), whereas actual source memory is better for unexpected sources (e.g., hairdryer in the kitchen; inconsistency effect; Schaper et al., 2019b). In three source-monitoring experiments, the authors tested whether a delay between study and metamemory judgments remedied this metamemory expectancy illusion. Further, the authors tested whether delayed judgments were based on in-the-moment experiences of retrieval fluency or updating of belief due to experiences with one's source memory. Participants studied source-item pairs and provided metamemory judgments either at study or after delay. After delay, they made judgments either on the complete source-item pair (eliciting no source retrieval, Experiment 1) or on the item only (eliciting covert, Experiment 1, or overt source retrieval, Experiments 2 and 3). Metamemory judgments at study showed the established illusory expectancy effect, as did delayed judgments when no source retrieval was elicited. However, when participants retrieved the source prior to delayed judgments, they predicted an inconsistency effect on source memory, which concurred with actual memory. Thus, delaying judgments remedied the metamemory expectancy illusion. Results further indicate that in-the-moment experiences of retrieval fluency and updated general belief about the effect of expectancy on source memory jointly contributed to this remedial effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Older and younger adults' hindsight bias after positive and negative outcomes.

After learning about facts or outcomes of events, people overestimate in hindsight what they knew in foresight. Prior research has shown that this hindsight bias is more pronounced in older than in younger adults. However, this robust finding is based primarily on a specific paradigm that requires generating and recalling numerical judgments to general knowledge questions that deal with emotionally neutral content. As older and younger adults tend to process positive and negative information differently, they might also show differences in hindsight bias after positive and negative outcomes. Furthermore, hindsight bias can manifest itself as a bias in memory for prior given judgments, but also as retrospective impressions of inevitability and foreseeability. Currently, there is no research on age differences in all three manifestations of hindsight bias. In this study, younger (N = 46, 18-30 years) and older adults (N = 45, 64-90 years) listened to everyday-life scenarios that ended positively or negatively, recalled the expectation they previously held about the outcome (to measure the memory component of hindsight bias), and rated each outcome's foreseeability and inevitability. Compared with younger adults, older adults recalled their prior expectations as closer to the actual outcomes (i.e., they showed a larger memory component of hindsight bias), and this age difference was more pronounced for negative than for positive outcomes. Inevitability and foreseeability impressions, however, did not differ between the age groups. Thus, there are age differences in hindsight bias after positive and negative outcomes, but only with regard to memory for prior judgments.

Adaptive prospective memory for faces of cheaters and cooperators.

A central tenet of the adaptive-memory framework is that memory has not merely evolved to help us relive the past but to prepare us for the future. In reciprocal social exchange, for instance, people must learn from previous experiences to approach cooperators and to avoid cheaters. In this sense, adaptive memory is inherently prospective. The present research is the first to test this central assumption of the adaptive-memory framework. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants played a Prisoner's Dilemma game and encountered cheating, cooperating, and neutral partners. The faces of these partners later reappeared during an event-based prospective-memory task. Participants showed better prospective-memory performance for cooperator and cheater faces than for neutral control faces. Multinomial processing-tree modeling served to separate the prospective component (remembering that an action needs to be performed) from the retrospective component (recognizing the target faces) of prospective memory. Superior prospective-memory performance for cooperator and cheater faces was attributable to a stronger prospective component, whereas the retrospective component remained unaffected. Experiment 3 showed that emotional descriptions of targets were ineffective in increasing prospective memory, suggesting that emotional valence alone cannot account for the prospective-memory advantage found in Experiments 1 and 2. The results suggest that cooperating with someone or being cheated by someone has a strong impact on future-oriented cognition. Enhanced prospective memory for cooperator and cheater faces may have an important function for maintaining reciprocal relationships and for avoiding cheaters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Nighttime sleep benefits the prospective component of prospective memory.

Studies suggest that sleep benefits event-based prospective memory, which involves carrying out intentions when particular events occur. Prospective memory has a prospective component (remembering that one has an intention), and a retrospective component (remembering when to carry it out). As effects of sleep on retrospective memory are well established, the effect of sleep on prospective memory may thus be due exclusively to an effect of sleep on its retrospective component. Therefore, the authors investigated whether nighttime sleep improves the prospective component of prospective memory, or a retrospective component, or both. In a first session, participants performed an event-based prospective-memory task (that was embedded in an ongoing task) 3 minutes after forming an intention and, in a second session, 12 hours after forming an intention. The sessions were separated by either nighttime sleep or daytime wakefulness. The authors disentangled prospective-memory performance into its retrospective and prospective components via multinomial processing tree modeling. There was no effect of sleep on the retrospective component, which may have been due to a time-of-day effect. The prospective component, which is the component unique to prospective memory, declined less strongly after a retention interval filled with sleep as compared with a retention interval filled with wakefulness. A hybrid interaction suggested that refreshed attention after sleep may account for this effect, but did not support the consolidation of the association between the intention and its appropriate context as a mechanism driving the effect.

When your brain looks older than expected: combined lifestyle risk and BrainAGE.

Lifestyle may be one source of unexplained variance in the great interindividual variability of the brain in age-related structural differences. While physical and social activity may protect against structural decline, other lifestyle behaviors may be accelerating factors. We examined whether riskier lifestyle correlates with accelerated brain aging using the BrainAGE score in 622 older adults from the 1000BRAINS cohort. Lifestyle was measured using a combined lifestyle risk score, composed of risk (smoking, alcohol intake) and protective variables (social integration and physical activity). We estimated individual BrainAGE from T1-weighted MRI data indicating accelerated brain atrophy by higher values. Then, the effect of combined lifestyle risk and individual lifestyle variables was regressed against BrainAGE. One unit increase in combined lifestyle risk predicted 5.04 months of additional BrainAGE. This prediction was driven by smoking (0.6 additional months of BrainAGE per pack-year) and physical activity (0.55 less months in BrainAGE per metabolic equivalent). Stratification by sex revealed a stronger association between physical activity and BrainAGE in males than females. Overall, our observations may be helpful with regard to lifestyle-related tailored prevention measures that slow changes in brain structure in older adults.

The Development of Clustering in Episodic Memory: A Cognitive-Modeling Approach.

Younger children's free recall from episodic memory is typically less organized than recall by older children. To investigate if and how repeated learning opportunities help children use organizational strategies that improve recall, the authors analyzed category clustering across four study-test cycles. Seven-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and young adults (N = 150) studied categorically related words for a free-recall task. The cognitive processes underlying recall and clustering were measured with a multinomial model. The modeling revealed that developmental differences emerged particularly in the rate of learning to encode words as categorical clusters. The learning curves showed a common pattern across age groups, indicating developmental invariance. Memory for individual items also contributed to developmental differences and was the only factor driving 7-year-olds' moderate improvements in recall.

The metamemory expectancy illusion in source monitoring affects metamemory control and memory.

In source monitoring, schematic expectations affect both memory and metamemory. In metamemory judgments, people predict better source memory for items that originated from an expected source (e.g., oven in the kitchen) than for items that originated from an unexpected source (e.g., hairdryer in the kitchen; expectancy effect; Schaper et al., 2019a). By contrast, actual source memory is either unaffected by expectations or better for unexpected sources (inconsistency effect; Kuhlmann & Bayen, 2016). Thus, the metamemory expectancy effect is illusory. This research is the first to test the hypotheses that such metamemory monitoring of source memory affects metamemory control (i.e., measures taken to achieve a desired level of memory; Nelson & Narens, 1990) and memory. Due to their expectancy illusion, people should choose to restudy unexpected source-item pairs more often. Three participant groups (n = 36 each) studied expected and unexpected source-item pairs. One group rendered metamemory judgments and chose pairs for restudy. A second group made restudy choices only. These two groups then restudied the chosen pairs. A third group did not make restudy choices and restudied a random half of the pairs. All participants completed a source-monitoring test. As predicted, participants chose unexpected pairs more often for restudy based on their illusory conviction that they would remember unexpected sources more poorly. These restudy choices concurred with an inconsistency effect on source memory not shown in the group without restudy choices. Thus, the metamemory illusion related to control and memory in source monitoring.

Are subjective sleepiness and sleep quality related to prospective memory?

Event-based prospective memory (PM) involves carrying out intentions when specific events occur and is ubiquitous in everyday life. It consists of a prospective component (remembering that something must be done) and a retrospective component (remembering what must be done and when). Subjective sleep-related variables may be related to PM performance and an attention-demanding prospective component. In two studies, the relationship of subjective sleepiness and subjective sleep quality with both PM components was investigated with a laboratory PM task and separation of its components via Bayesian multinomial processing tree modeling. In Study 1, neither component of PM was related to naturally occurring subjective sleepiness or sleep quality. In Study 2, sleepiness was experimentally increased by placing some participants in a supine body posture. Testing participants in upright vs. supine posture affected neither PM component. However, body posture moderated the relationship between subjective sleep quality and the prospective component: In supine posture, subjective sleep quality tended to be more positively related to the prospective component. Overall, neither subjective sleepiness nor subjective sleep quality alone was related to PM.

Attitudes toward aging and older adults in Arab culture : A literature review.

BACKGROUND: As population ageing takes place around the world, research on attitudes toward ageing and older people increases in relevance. With migration of people from the Arab world into countries with high percentages of older adults, attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in Arab culture are of particular interest. OBJECTIVE: The article provides a review of the empirical literature on attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in the Arab world and discusses the findings on the basis of the general literature on age stereotypes, attitudes toward ageing, and ageism as well as their link to culture. METHOD: A literature search was performed to find empirical studies on attitudes toward ageing and older adults that include Arab samples. Studies published in Arabic or English were included. RESULTS: Studies on attitudes toward ageing with Arab samples are scarce and do not show cohesive patterns of results. None of the hypotheses that have been brought forward to explain cross-cultural differences regarding attitudes toward ageing (i.e., the culture, modernization, and speed of population ageing hypotheses) can fully account for the results. Possible reasons for conflicting results include sociodemographic variables, regional differences, lack of differentiation between meta-perceptions and personal attitudes, heterogeneity of measurement instruments and definitions of "older people" and possible confounds due to the usage of subjective Likert scales in cross-cultural studies. CONCLUSION: Further research on attitudes toward ageing in Arab samples are needed and should consider heterogeneity within Arab culture as well as variables other than culture.

Combining lifestyle risks to disentangle brain structure and functional connectivity differences in older adults.

Lifestyle contributes to inter-individual variability in brain aging, but previous studies focused on the effects of single lifestyle variables. Here, we studied the combined and individual contributions of four lifestyle variables - alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, and social integration - to brain structure and functional connectivity in a population-based cohort of 549 older adults. A combined lifestyle risk score was associated with decreased gyrification in left premotor and right prefrontal cortex, and higher functional connectivity to sensorimotor and prefrontal cortex. While structural differences were driven by alcohol consumption, physical activity, and social integration, higher functional connectivity was driven by smoking. Results suggest that combining differentially contributing lifestyle variables may be more than the sum of its parts. Associations generally were neither altered by adjustment for genetic risk, nor by depressive symptomatology or education, underlining the relevance of daily habits for brain health.

Metamemory expectancy illusion and schema-consistent guessing in source monitoring.

Source monitoring involves attributing information to one of several sources. Schemas are known to influence source-monitoring processes, with enhanced memory for schematically unexpected sources (inconsistency effect) and biased schema-consistent source guessing. The authors investigated whether this guessing bias reflects a compensatory guessing strategy based on metacognitive awareness of the inconsistency effect, or reflects other strategies as proposed by the probability-matching account. To determine people's awareness of the inconsistency effect, the authors investigated metamemory predictions in a source-monitoring task. In four experiments, participants studied object word items that were presented with one of two scene labels as sources. Items were either presented with their schematically expected source (e.g., kitchen-oven) or with their schematically unexpected source (e.g., kitchen-toothpaste). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants predicted their item memory and their source memory after each source-item presentation. In Experiment 1, people incorrectly predicted both their item memory and, even more so, their source memory to be better for expected than for unexpected source-item pairs. In Experiment 2, this effect replicated with different types of judgment probes. Crucially, item-wise memory predictions did not predict source guessing. In Experiment 3, metacognitive awareness of the inconsistency effect on source memory changed during the test phase. However, metamemory convictions never predicted source guessing. In Experiment 4, the authors manipulated participants' convictions concerning the impact of schematic expectations on source memory. These convictions also did not predict source guessing. Thus, the results show that schema-consistent source guessing does not reflect a compensatory strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of dysphoria and induced negative mood on the processes underlying hindsight bias.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to overestimate one's prior knowledge of facts or events once the actual facts or events are known. Several theoretical frameworks suggest that affective states might influence hindsight bias. Nondysphoric participants (n = 123, BDI ≤ 13) in negative or neutral mood, and dysphoric participants (n = 19, BDI > 13) generated and recalled answers to difficult knowledge questions. All groups showed hindsight bias, that is, their recalled estimates were closer to the correct answer when this answer was shown at recall. Multinomial modelling revealed, however, that under dysphoria and induced negative mood different processes contributed to hindsight bias. Dysphoria, but not induced negative mood, was associated with a stronger reconstruction bias, compared with neutral mood. A recollection bias appeared in neutral, but neither in induced negative nor dysphoric mood. These findings highlight differences between the cognitive consequences of dysphoria and induced negative mood.

Multidimensionality of Younger and Older Adults' Age Stereotypes: The Interaction of Life Domain and Adjective Dimension.

OBJECTIVES: The authors investigated the sources of age-stereotype multidimensionality with the help of personal everyday statements that differed with respect to life domain (e.g., family and partnership vs financial matters) and the adjective dimension reflected in the behavior (e.g., autonomous vs instrumental behavior). METHOD: A total of 368 statements reflecting autonomy-, instrumentality-, or integrity-related behaviors in five different life domains were generated. Sixty-nine younger (18-26 years) and 74 older (60-84 years) participants rated the typicality of each statement for either a "young adult" or an "old adult." RESULTS: Occurrence and direction of age stereotypes varied by life domain and adjective dimension and ultimately depended on the specific combination of both factors (i.e., a significant interaction). For example, old adults were expected to be optimistic about religious aspects but not about their health, fitness, and appearance. DISCUSSION: The findings highlight the multidimensionality and complexity of age stereotypes based on a wide array of personal everyday statements.

The impact of age stereotypes on source monitoring in younger and older adults.

In 2 experiments, we examined reliance on age stereotypes when reconstructing the sources of statements. Two sources presented statements (half typical for a young adult, half for an old adult). Afterward, the sources' ages-23 and 70 years-were revealed and participants completed a source-monitoring task requiring attribution of statements to the sources. Multinomial model-based analyses revealed no age-typicality effect on source memory; however, age-typicality biased source-guessing: When not remembering the source, participants predominantly guessed the source for whose age the statement was typical. Thereby, people retrospectively described the sources as having made more statements that fit with stereotypes about their age group than they had truly made. In Experiment 1, older (60-84 years) participants' guessing bias was stronger than younger (17-26 years) participants', but they also had poorer source memory. Furthermore, older adults with better source memory were less biased than those with poorer source memory. Similarly, younger adults' age-stereotype reliance was larger when source memory was impaired in Experiment 2. Thus, age stereotypes bias source attributions, and individuals with poor source memory are particularly prone to this bias, which may contribute to the maintenance of age stereotypes over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

Selective effects of acute alcohol intake on the prospective and retrospective components of a prospective-memory task with emotional targets.

RATIONALE: Prospective memory involves remembering to do something in the future and has a prospective component (remembering that something must be done) and a retrospective component (remembering what must be done and when it must be done). Initial studies reported an impairment in prospective-memory performance due to acute alcohol consumption. Retrospective-memory studies demonstrated that alcohol effects vary depending on the emotionality of the information that needs to be learned. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to investigate possible differential effects of a mild acute alcohol dose (0.4 g/kg) on the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory depending on cue valence. METHOD: Seventy-five participants were allocated to an alcohol or placebo group and performed a prospective-memory task in which prospective-memory cue valence was manipulated (negative, neutral, positive). The multinomial model of event-based prospective memory (Smith and Bayen 2004) was used to measure alcohol and valence effects on the two prospective-memory components separately. RESULTS: Overall, no main effect of alcohol or valence on prospective-memory performance occurred. However, model-based analyses demonstrated a significantly higher retrospective component for positive compared with negative cues in the placebo group. In the alcohol group, the prospective component was weaker for negative than for neutral cues and the retrospective component was stronger for positive than for neutral cues. Group comparisons showed that the alcohol group had a significantly lower prospective component for negative cues and a lower retrospective component for neutral cues. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to demonstrate selective alcohol effects on prospective-memory components depending on prospective-memory cue valence.

Adult age differences in hindsight bias: The role of recall ability.

Hindsight bias, that is, the overestimation of one's prior knowledge of outcomes after the actual outcomes are known, is stronger in older than young adults (e.g., Bayen, Erdfelder, Bearden, & Lozito, 2006). The authors investigated whether age differences in the recall of original judgments account for this difference. Multinomial model-based analyses of data from a hindsight memory task revealed that biased reconstruction of original judgments was equally likely in both age groups when recall of original judgments was lowered in young adults via a manipulation of retention interval. These results support a recall-based explanation of age differences in hindsight bias.

Hierarchical Multinomial Modeling Approaches: An Application to Prospective Memory and Working Memory.

Hierarchical extensions of multinomial processing tree (MPT) models have been developed to deal with heterogeneity in participants or items. In this study, the beta-MPT model ( J. B. Smith & Batchelder, 2010 ) and the latent-trait approach ( Klauer, 2010 ) were used to estimate individual model parameters for prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory (PM), which requires remembering to perform an action in the future. The data from two experiments investigating the relationship between PM and working memory ( R. E. Smith & Bayen, 2005 , Experiment 1; R. E. Smith, Persyn, & Butler, 2011 ) were reanalyzed using the two hierarchical modeling approaches, both of which provide parameter estimates for individual participants. The results showed a positive correlation of the prospective component of PM with working-memory span and provide the first direct comparisons of the two hierarchical extensions of an MPT model.