title: Age-related deficits in prospective memory: the influence of task complexity.
abstract: Younger and older subjects were asked to perform an action whenever target words occurred during a short-term memory task. The difficulty of this prospective memory task was manipulated by varying the delay preceding the occurrence of a target event and by varying the number of different target events. Age-related performance differences emerged when there were several different target events but not when there was one target event presented several times. Age-related performance differences, when they occurred, were associated with poorer retrospective memory for the target events. The results were interpreted in terms of a componential analysis of prospective memory, which assumes both similarities and differences between prospective and retrospective memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina 29613.
authors.forename: G O
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Einstein
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McDaniel
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Guynn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012153:Retention, Psychology