title: A naturalistic study of prospective memory function in MCI and dementia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE. Naturalistic measures of prospective memory (PM) show less age-related decline than laboratory measures. We investigated whether a naturalistic measure of PM differentiates between normal ageing, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia. METHOD. Ninety-eight older adults agreed to perform a time-based PM task in their everyday lives. RESULTS. Despite a self-selection bias in task acceptance, dementia participants performed more poorly relative to both the MCI and control group. Performance on the naturalistic PM task showed good convergent validity with both a cognitive screening measure and a laboratory PM assessment. CONCLUSIONS. PM difficulties are experienced in the everyday lives of people with dementia and are related to laboratory-based assessments but do not appear to be evident on a naturalistic task for those with MCI.
authors: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. cthompson@psy.unsw.edu.au
authors: Claire L
authors: CL
authors: Thompson
authors: Julie D
authors: JD
authors: Henry
authors: Adrienne
authors: A
authors: Withall
authors: Peter G
authors: PG
authors: Rendell
authors: Henry
authors: H
authors: Brodaty
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results