日常前瞻记忆的年龄差异

The Effect of Aging on Everyday Prospective Memory

在年龄-前瞻记忆悖论现象中,老年人完成日常前瞻记忆任务时,其表现优于年轻人的现象尤其引人注意。研究者一方面探讨了动机水平、责任心、生活状态以及外部帮助与提示等与主体有关的因素对这一结果的影响,另一方面也研究了任务本身因素的影响:根据不同任务情境和任务性质的前瞻记忆年龄比较的结果,可以推断日常前瞻记忆年龄差异与任务的性质有关,而非任务的情境。将来的研究可通过元分析、中介效应检验等手段进一步确定日常前瞻记忆年龄差异的机制。

In the age-prospective memory-paradox, the superior parformance of the elderly in the daily prospective memory tasks in a natural context, in contrast to the young subjects, has been particularly noticeable. Some researchers discussed the subjective factors of this phenomenon from the following aspects： （1） the level of motivation and the sense of responsibility. Some results （Aberle, Rendell, Rose, McDaniel, ＆ Kliegel, 2010, Kvavilashvili ＆ Fisher, 2007; Rendell ＆ Thomson, 1999） showed that the level of motivation of the old was higher than that of the young. Another study （Cuttle ＆ Graf, 2007） showed that this advantage was related to the higher responsibility of the elderly; （2） lifestyle factors. Some researchers （Freeman ＆ Ellis, 2003; Schnitzspahn, Ihle, Henry, Rendell, ＆ Kliegel, 2011） believed that the daily prospective memory task advantage of the old in the natural environments was associated with the state of their life： most of the elderly have already retired with less formance pressure, which enables them to accomplish the prospective memory task better; （3） external factors prompted. Previous research （ Masumoto, Nishimura, Tabuchi ＆ Fujita, 2011; Phillips, Henry ＆ Martin, 2008） indicated that the elderly using more of external cues might improve their prospective memory performance in the natural context. Prospective memory advantage of the elderly in the natural situation can also be demonstrated in comparing the tasks in the natural and in the laboratory situations. Based on the previous research, it can be concluded that the performance of the elderly in daily tasks is better than that of the young in natural situations, while the opposite is true in cognitive tasks in both the natural and the laboratory situations. This suggests that the mechanism of the advantage of the elderly in prospective memory is related to the nature of the tasks rather than the scenarios. The mechanism of the advantage of the elderly in daily prospective memory might be further confirmed by meta-analysis and mediating effects testing in future research.