Article

The term prospective memory (PM) refers to memory for future intentions. PM
problems are frequent in people with cognitive impairment and, because they are
central to the realisation of many everyday goals, are important in
rehabilitation. Event-based PM tasks (EBPM) are environmentally-cued and have
primarily mnemonic demands, whereas time-based PM tasks (TBPM) require
self-initiated retrieval, and have greater executive demands. Errorless learning
(EL) is an encoding method that results in superior retrospective memory compared
with "errorful" learning (EF). As this EL advantage (ELA) likely stems from its
reduced explicit memory demands, and there is no such advantage for executive
tasks, a greater ELA for EBPM than TBPM was predicted. Fourteen adults with
neurological memory impairment completed PM tasks under four counterbalanced
conditions: EL of EBPM, EL of TBPM, EF of EBPM, and EF of TBPM. A significant ELA
was observed for EBPM (d = .63), but not TBPM (d = -.01). These results extend
the evidence for EL within cognitive rehabilitation, by showing for the first
time that the method can benefit future action in addition to retrospective
memory. The clinical implications are also clear: errorless learning techniques
may be usefully employed to support completion of day-to-day EBPM tasks.

Langue : ANGLAIS