scholarly journals Investigating the effects of ongoing-task bias on prospective memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1495-1513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Strickland ◽  
Shayne Loft ◽  
Andrew Heathcote
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Ongoing Task ◽  
Future Event ◽  
Decision Control ◽  
Event Based ◽  
Parameter Values

Event-based prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive processes required to perform a planned action upon encountering a future event. Event-based PM studies engage participants in an ongoing task (e.g., lexical decision-making) with an instruction to make an alternative PM response to certain items (e.g., items containing “tor”). The Prospective Memory Decision Control (PMDC) model, which provides a quantitative process account of ongoing-task and PM decisions, proposes that PM and ongoing-task processes compete in a race to threshold. We use PMDC to test whether, as proposed by the Delay Theory of PM costs, PM can be improved by biasing decision-making against a specific ongoing-task choice, so that the PM process is more likely to win the race. We manipulated bias in a lexical decision task with an accompanying PM intention. In one condition, a bias was induced against deciding items were words, and in another, a bias was induced against deciding items were non-words. The bias manipulation had little effect on PM accuracy but did affect the types of ongoing-task responses made on missed PM trials. PMDC fit the observed data well and verified that the bias manipulation had the intended effect on ongoing-task processes. Furthermore, although simulations from PMDC could produce an improvement in PM accuracy due to ongoing-task bias, this required implausible parameter values. These results illustrate the importance of understanding event-based PM in terms of a comprehensive model of the processes that interact to determine all aspects of task performance.

Prior Task Experience and Comparable Stimulus Exposure Nullify Focal and Nonfocal Prospective Memory Retrieval Differences

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 1997-2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason L. Hicks ◽  
Bryan A. Franks ◽  
Samantha N. Spitler
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Ongoing Task ◽  
Instruction Condition ◽  
Focal Condition ◽  
Task Experience ◽  
Event Based

We explored the nature of focal versus nonfocal event-based prospective memory retrieval. In the context of a lexical decision task, people received an intention to respond to a single word (focal) in one condition and to a category label (nonfocal) for the other condition. Participants experienced both conditions, and their order was manipulated. The focal instruction condition was a single word presented multiple times. In Experiment 1, the stimuli in the nonfocal condition were different exemplars from a category, each presented once. In the nonfocal condition retrieval was poorer and reaction times were slower during the ongoing task as compared to the focal condition, replicating prior findings. In Experiment 2, the stimulus in the nonfocal condition was a single category exemplar repeated multiple times. When this single-exemplar nonfocal condition followed in time the single-item focal condition, focal versus nonfocal performance was virtually indistinguishable. These results demonstrate that people can modify their stimulus processing and expectations in event-based prospective memory tasks based on experience with the nature of prospective cues and with the ongoing task.

scholarly journals Task Importance Affects Event-Based Prospective Memory Performance in Adults with HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders and HIV-Infected Young Adults with Problematic Substance Use

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 652-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Paul Woods ◽  
Katie L. Doyle ◽  
Erin E. Morgan ◽  
Sylvie Naar-King ◽  
Angulique Y. Outlaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Neurocognitive Disorders ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Ongoing Task ◽  
Persons Living With Hiv ◽  
Task Requirements ◽  
Event Based ◽  
Hiv Associated Neurocognitive Disorders

AbstractTwo experiments were conducted to examine the effects of task importance on event-based prospective memory (PM) in separate samples of adults with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and HIV-infected young adults with substance use disorders (SUD). All participants completed three conditions of an ongoing lexical decision task: (1) without PM task requirements; (2) with PM task requirements that emphasized the importance of the ongoing task; and (3) with PM task requirements that emphasized the importance of the PM task. In both experiments, all HIV+ groups showed the expected increase in response costs to the ongoing task when the PM task’s importance was emphasized. In Experiment 1, individuals with HAND showed significantly lower PM accuracy as compared to HIV+ subjects without HAND when the importance of the ongoing task was emphasized, but improved significantly and no longer differed from HIV+ subjects without HAND when the PM task was emphasized. A similar pattern of findings emerged in Experiment 2, whereby HIV+ young adults with SUD (especially cannabis) showed significant improvements in PM accuracy when the PM task was emphasized. Findings suggest that both HAND and SUD may increase the amount of cognitive attentional resources that need to be allocated to support PM performance in persons living with HIV infection. (JINS, 2014, 21, 1–11)

scholarly journals The Feeling is Real: Emotion Elicitation in Virtual Reality

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-256
Author(s):  
Sahinya Susindar ◽  
Mahnoosh Sadeghi ◽  
Lea Huntington ◽  
Andrew Singer ◽  
Thomas K. Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Desktop Computer ◽  
Emotion Elicitation ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Display Systems

Classical methods for eliciting emotional responses, including the use of emotionally-charged pictures and films, have been used to study the influence of affective states on human decision-making and other cognitive processes. Advanced multisensory display systems, such as Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, offer a degree of immersion that may support more reliable elicitation of emotional experiences than less-immersive displays, and can provide a powerful yet relatively safe platform for inducing negative emotions such as fear and anger. However, it is not well understood how the presentation medium influences the degree to which emotions are elicited. In this study, emotionally-charged stimuli were introduced via two display configurations – on a desktop computer and on a VR system –and were evaluated based on performance in a decision task. Results show that the use of VR can be a more effective method for emotion elicitation when study decision-making under the influence of emotions.

scholarly journals Sustained and Transient Processes in Event-based Prospective Memory in Adolescence and Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1924-1945
Author(s):  
Lucía Magis-Weinberg ◽  
Ruud Custers ◽  
Iroise Dumontheil
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Strategic Monitoring ◽  
Cue Salience ◽  
Event Based

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive processes associated with remembering to perform an intended action after a delay. Varying the salience of PM cues while keeping the intended response constant, we investigated the extent to which participants relied on strategic monitoring, through sustained, top–down control, or on spontaneous retrieval via transient bottom–up processes. There is mixed evidence regarding developmental improvements in event-based PM performance after the age of 13 years. We compared PM performance and associated sustained and transient neural correlates in 28 typically developing adolescents (12–17 years old) and 19 adults (23–30 years old). Lower PM cue salience associated with slower ongoing task (OT) RTs, reflected by increased μ ex-Gaussian parameter, and sustained increases in frontoparietal activation during OT blocks, both thought to reflect greater proactive control supporting cue monitoring. Behavioral and neural correlates of PM trials were not specifically modulated by cue salience, revealing little difference in reactive control between conditions. The effect of cue salience was similar across age groups, suggesting that adolescents are able to adapt proactive control engagement to PM task demands. Exploratory analyses showed that younger, but not older, adolescents were less accurate and slower in PM trials relative to OT trials than adults and showed greater transient activation in PM trials in an occipito-temporal cluster. These results provide evidence of both mature and still maturing aspects of cognitive processes associated with implementation of an intention after a delay during early adolescence.

A Fundamental Cognitive Taxonomy for Cognition Aids

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-873
Author(s):  
Anne Collins McLaughlin ◽  
Vicky E. Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Declarative Knowledge ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
Cognitive Aids ◽  
Basic Level

Objective This study aimed to organize the literature on cognitive aids to allow comparison of findings across studies and link the applied work of aid development to psychological constructs and theories of cognition. Background Numerous taxonomies have been developed, all of which label cognitive aids via their surface characteristics. This complicates integration of the literature, as a type of aid, such as a checklist, can provide many different forms of support (cf. prospective memory for steps and decision support for alternative diagnoses). Method In this synthesis of the literature, we address the disparate findings and organize them at their most basic level: Which cognitive processes does the aid need to support? Which processes do they support? Such processes include attention, perception, decision making, memory, and declarative knowledge. Results Cognitive aids can be classified into the processes they support. Some studies focused on how an aid supports the cognitive processes demanded by the task (aid function). Other studies focused on supporting the processes needed to utilize the aid (aid usability). Conclusion Classifying cognitive aids according to the processes they support allows comparison across studies in the literature and a formalized way of planning the design of new cognitive aids. Once the literature is organized, theory-based guidelines and applied examples can be used by cognitive aid researchers and designers. Application Aids can be designed according to the cognitive processes they need to support. Designers can be clear about their focus, either examining how to support specific cognitive processes or improving the usability of the aid.

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