Processing Speed Mediates Age Cohort and Prospective Memory Performance

Age has been shown to negatively impact prospective memory (PM), the ability to carry out intentions in the future. However, many age-related cognitive changes may reflect underlying declines in processing speed (Salthouse et al., 2004). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether processing speed mediates the relationship between age cohort and prospective memory performance. Older (n = 52) and younger adults (n = 40) completed WAIS-IV Coding and the Virtual Kitchen Protocol, which includes PM tasks with both time-based and event-based cues both in and out of virtual reality. Processing speed mediated the relationship between age cohort and PM performance both in and out of virtual reality. Partial mediation was observed in the analog-based PM, whereas full mediation was observed in the virtual reality-based PM. Processing speed may explain age-related changes in PM as measured by both analog and virtual reality tasks

Comparison of Traditional and Virtual Reality-Based Episodic Memory Performance in Clinical and Non-Clinical Cohorts

The California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLT-II) and the Virtual Environment Grocery Store (VEGS) use list learning and recognition tasks to assess episodic memory. This study aims to: (1) Replicate prior construct validity results among a new sample of young adults and healthy older adults; (2) Extend this work to a clinical sample of older adults with a neurocognitive diagnosis; (3) Compare CVLT-II and VEGS performance among these groups; and (4) Validate the independence of CVLT and VEGS episodic memory performance measures from executive functioning performance measures. Typically developing young adults (n = 53) and older adults (n = 85), as well as older adults with a neurocognitive diagnosis (n = 18), were administered the CVLT-II, VEGS, and D-KEFS CWIT. Results found that (1) the relationship of the VEGS and CVLT-II measures was highly correlated on all variables, (2) compared to the CVLT-II, participants (particularly older adults) recalled fewer items on the VEGS, and (3) the CVLT-II and VEGS were generally independent of D-KEFS CWIT. It appeared that the VEGS may be more difficult than the CVLT-II, possibly reflecting the word length effect. Performance may have also been impacted by the presence of everyday distractors in the virtual environment