The influence of emotional cues on prospective memory: A systematic review with meta-analyses

Remembering to perform a behaviour in the future, prospective memory, is essential to ensuring that people fulfil their intentions. Prospective memory involves committing to memory a cue to action (encoding), and later recognising and acting upon the cue in the environment (retrieval). Prospective memory performance is believed to be influenced by the emotionality of the cues, however the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. We conducted a systematic search to synthesise research on the influence of emotion on prospective memory. Sixty-seven effect sizes were extracted from 17 articles and hypothesised effects tested using three meta-analyses. Overall, prospective memory was enhanced when positively-valenced rather than neutral cues were presented (d = 0.32). In contrast, negatively-valenced cues did not enhance prospective memory overall (d = 0.07), but this effect was moderated by the timing of the emotional manipulation. Prospective memory performance was improved when negatively-valenced cues were presented during both encoding and retrieval (d = 0.40), but undermined when presented only during encoding (d = -0.25). Moderating effects were also found for cue-focality and whether studies controlled for the arousal level of the cues. The principal finding is that positively-valenced cues improve prospective memory performance and that timing of the manipulation can moderate emotional effects on prospective memory. We offer a new agenda for future empirical work and theorising in this area

On the Nature of Everyday Prospection: A Review and Theoretical Integration of Research on Mind-Wandering, Future Thinking, and Prospective Memory

© 2020 The Authors. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268020918843The ability to imagine and simulate events that may happen in the future has been studied in several related but independent research areas (e.g., episodic future thinking, mind-wandering, prospective memory), with a newly emerging field of involuntary future thinking focusing primarily on the spontaneous occurrence of such thoughts. In this article, we review evidence from these diverse fields to address important questions about why do people think about the future, what are the typical and most frequent contents of such thoughts, and how do these thoughts occur (are they spontaneous or constructed deliberately). Results of the literature review provide support for the pragmatic theory of prospection, by showing that when people engage in prospective thought naturally, without being explicitly instructed to do so, they predominantly think about their upcoming tasks and planned activities instead of simulating plausible but novel hypothetical scenarios. Moreover, prospective thoughts are more often spontaneous than deliberate and effortful, and their occurrence seems to increase the likelihood of planned activities being completed in the future. The findings are discussed in the context of a new “pragmatic dual process account” of future thinking, and new avenues for future research on prospection are outlined.Peer reviewe

Modelos explicativos da memória prospectiva: uma revisão teórica

Neste artigo é apresentada uma revisão da literatura sobre os mecanismos cognitivos associados à memória prospectiva, organizados de acordo com a divisão das diferentes fases da recordação prospectiva (i.e., codificação, retenção e recuperação). Inicialmente, é apresentada a diversidade de dados da investigação que sustentam diferentes abordagens explicativas do fenômeno de recuperação de intenções, considerando a natureza automática ou estratégica da memória prospectiva. Em seguida, são salientadas as potenciais explicações sobre os mecanismos presentes durante o intervalo de retenção e na fase de codificação.(undefined

Prospective memory performance in older people, adults and youth

The aims of this study were to verify the potential differences in prospective memory (PM) among young people, adults and the elderly; analyze the relationships between variables of comprehension and verbal fluency and PM; and finally, verify the existence of a relationship between self-reported health status and performance on PM. A cross- sectional design was used. The study involved 270 participants divided into three age groups: young people aged 18 to 28 years; adults 45 to 55, and seniors 60 to 80. Their comprehension and verbal fluency skills were assessed as well as their self-perceived health status. Subsequently, an experiment was carried out where participants were presented with paragraphs of three sentences on a computer screen and they had to recognize previously agreed words that would indicate their level of MP. The results established significant differences in prospective memory between adults and older people and between young people and the elderly. But no differences between youth and adults were found..The importance of verbal comprehension and verbal fluency in solving prospective memory experimental tasks was also significant. In addition, a better self-perception of well-being was linked to a higher performance in PMEste trabajo fue posible gracias a la financiación del grupo de investigación HUM634 de la Junta de Andalucía y al contrato OTRI de este grupo con la Diputación provincial de Cádiz. El primer autor fue becario AECID en el Departamento de Psicología de la UCA durante la realización del estu

The assessment and rehabilitation of prospective memory problems in people with neurological disorders: A review

People with neurological disorders often report difficulty with prospective memory (PM), that is, remembering to do things they had intended to do. This paper briefly reviews the literature regarding the neuropsychology of PM function, concluding that from the clinical perspective, PM is best considered in terms of its separable but interacting mnemonic and executive components. Next, the strengths and limitations in the current clinical assessment of PM, including the assessment of component processes, desktop analogues of PM tasks, and naturalistic PM tasks, are outlined. The evidence base for the rehabilitation of PM is then considered, focusing on retraining PM, using retrospective memory strategies, problem-solving training, and finally, electronic memory aids. It is proposed that further research should focus on establishing the predictive validity of PM assessment, and refining promising rehabilitation techniques

3 years of liraglutide versus placebo for type 2 diabetes risk reduction and weight management in individuals with prediabetes: a randomised, double-blind trial

Background Liraglutide 3\ub70 mg was shown to reduce bodyweight and improve glucose metabolism after the 56-week period of this trial, one of four trials in the SCALE programme. In the 3-year assessment of the SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes trial we aimed to evaluate the proportion of individuals with prediabetes who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adults with prediabetes and a body-mass index of at least 30 kg/m2, or at least 27 kg/m2 with comorbidities, were randomised 2:1, using a telephone or web-based system, to once-daily subcutaneous liraglutide 3\ub70 mg or matched placebo, as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. Time to diabetes onset by 160 weeks was the primary outcome, evaluated in all randomised treated individuals with at least one post-baseline assessment. The trial was conducted at 191 clinical research sites in 27 countries and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01272219. Findings The study ran between June 1, 2011, and March 2, 2015. We randomly assigned 2254 patients to receive liraglutide (n=1505) or placebo (n=749). 1128 (50%) participants completed the study up to week 160, after withdrawal of 714 (47%) participants in the liraglutide group and 412 (55%) participants in the placebo group. By week 160, 26 (2%) of 1472 individuals in the liraglutide group versus 46 (6%) of 738 in the placebo group were diagnosed with diabetes while on treatment. The mean time from randomisation to diagnosis was 99 (SD 47) weeks for the 26 individuals in the liraglutide group versus 87 (47) weeks for the 46 individuals in the placebo group. Taking the different diagnosis frequencies between the treatment groups into account, the time to onset of diabetes over 160 weeks among all randomised individuals was 2\ub77 times longer with liraglutide than with placebo (95% CI 1\ub79 to 3\ub79, p<0\ub70001), corresponding with a hazard ratio of 0\ub721 (95% CI 0\ub713\u20130\ub734). Liraglutide induced greater weight loss than placebo at week 160 (\u20136\ub71 [SD 7\ub73] vs 121\ub79% [6\ub73]; estimated treatment difference 124\ub73%, 95% CI 124\ub79 to 123\ub77, p<0\ub70001). Serious adverse events were reported by 227 (15%) of 1501 randomised treated individuals in the liraglutide group versus 96 (13%) of 747 individuals in the placebo group. Interpretation In this trial, we provide results for 3 years of treatment, with the limitation that withdrawn individuals were not followed up after discontinuation. Liraglutide 3\ub70 mg might provide health benefits in terms of reduced risk of diabetes in individuals with obesity and prediabetes. Funding Novo Nordisk, Denmark