Prospective Memory

前瞻性记忆使我们能够制定计划，并在适当的时间和地点重新考虑这些计划。 例如，我们需要前瞻性记忆来记住下班回家的路上买东西，或者按照规定的时间表服药。我的研究的长期目标是促进我们对前瞻记忆中与年龄相关的变化的理解。 许多理论预测了前瞻记忆中与年龄相关的变化，我的研究将检验其中的一些预测。 然而，回顾以往的文献突出了几个紧迫的问题，阻碍前瞻记忆研究的进展。 首先，前瞻记忆缺乏可靠有效的客观测量方法。 目前，绝大多数前瞻记忆研究都是使用二元成功/失败指标进行的，这些指标不可靠且效率低下，并且经常导致无法解释的结果。 其次，现有的前瞻性记忆失败的自我报告措施是可靠的，但不是有效的（即，不测量前瞻性记忆）。第三，以前的研究通常未能区分前瞻性记忆和警惕/监测，相关但不同的能力，受到年龄等变量的不同影响，导致许多看似矛盾的理论主张和发现。 研究有四个短期目标。 第一个目标是开发可靠的连续（而不是二进制）前瞻性记忆的措施。 第二个目标是发展可靠和有效的前瞻性记忆失败的自我报告。 第三个目标是研究前瞻性记忆和警惕/监控之间的区别。 第四个也是最后一个目标是检验（a）前瞻记忆在整个生命周期中是如何变化的;（B）加工速度、回顾记忆和其他认知过程的变化是否可以解释前瞻记忆的年龄变化;（c）前瞻记忆、人格和智力之间的关系。 从理论和应用的角度来看，实现这些目标都很重要，因为前瞻性记忆对于维持老年人的独立生活至关重要。

Prospective memory allows us to make plans and to recollect them later at the right time and place. We require prospective memory, for example, to remember to pick up groceries on the way home from work or for taking medication following a prescribed schedule. The long term goal of my research is to advance our understanding of age-related changes in prospective memory. A number of theories make predictions about age-related changes in prospective memory and my research will examine a number of these predictions. However, a review of previous literature highlights several pressing problems that hinder advancements in prospective memory research. First, there is a lack of reliable and valid objective measures of prospective memory. At present, the vast majority of prospective memory research has been conducted using binary success/failure indexes that are unreliable and inefficient, and often result in uninterpretable findings. Second, the existing self-report measures of prospective memory failures are reliable but not valid (i.e., do not measure prospective memory). Third, previous research has generally failed to distinguish between prospective memory and vigilance/monitoring, related yet distinct abilities that are differentially affected by variables such as aging, resulting in many seemingly contradictory theoretical claims and findings. The proposed research has four short term goals. The first goal is to develop reliable continuous (as opposed to binary) measures of prospective memory. The second goal is to develop reliable and valid self-reports of prospective memory failures. The third goal is to examine the distinction between prospective memory and vigilance/monitoring. The fourth and final goal is to examine (a) how exactly prospective memory changes across the life-span, (b) whether changes in processing speed, retrospective memory, and other cognitive processes explain age changes in prospective memory, and (c) the relationship between prospective memory, personality, and intelligence. Addressing these objectives is important from both theoretical and applied perspectives because prospective memory is critical for sustaining older adults' independent living.