The cost of event-based prospective memory in children

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Janet Leigh (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Stuart Marcovitch

Abstract: Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action in the future when a cue is presented. However, processes involved in remembering the future intention (i.e., preparatory attentional processes) might hinder performance on activities leading up to and surrounding the event in which an intention must be carried out. The current study was designed to assess whether young children who engage in prospective memory do so at a cost to current cognitive processing. Four-, 5-, and 6-year old children either performed a simple ongoing selection task only (control condition) or performed the selection task with an embedded prospective memory task (experimental condition). Results demonstrated that children in the experimental condition slowed down in phase two due relative to children in the control condition. The results are discussed in terms of the development of executive functioning and more specifically, how working memory and speed of processing my play a role in the cost imposed to an ongoing task by a prospective memory task.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2008
Keywords
Children, Executive Function, Memory, Preparatory Attentional Processes, Prospective Memory
Subjects
Prospective memory.
Memory in children.
Cognition in children.
Human information processing in children.
Child development.

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