Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21058832›Full record

ArticleDevelopmental psychology2010

The age prospective memory paradox: young adults may not give their best outside of the lab.

Ingo Aberle, Peter G Rendell, Nathan S Rose, Mark A McDaniel, Matthias Kliegel

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Developmental psychology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
27citing papers in PubMed
5.2field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

27 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  4. Factors Influencing Objective and Subjective Prospective Memory Measures in Traumatic Brain Injury.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2025
    Observational
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  20. Regularity effect in prospective memory during aging.Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology · 2016
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Ingo AberleDepartment of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Peter G Rendell
Nathan S Rose
Mark A McDaniel
Matthias Kliegel
Technische Universität Dresden · DEWashington University in St. Louis · USAustralian Catholic University · AU

Funding

AGING AND DEVELOPMENTT32AG000030 · NIA · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI DENISE HEAD, Jeffrey M Zacks · 1985 to 2026
$9.7M
NIA NIH HHS T32 AG000030
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in laboratory settings in contrast to age benefits in naturalistic settings. Various factors are assumed to account for this paradox, yet empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In 2 experiments, the present study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory task and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic task on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. For the laboratory task (Experiment 1, n = 40), we used a board game to simulate a week of daily activities and varied features of the prospective memory task (e.g., task regularity). For the naturalistic task (Experiment 2, n = 80), we instructed participants to try to remember to contact the experimenter repeatedly over the course of 1 week. Results from the laboratory prospective memory tasks indicated significant age-related decline for irregular tasks (p = .006) but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic task, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives (F < 1). In conclusion, the present results indicate that the variability of age differences in laboratory prospective memory tasks may be due in part to differences in the features of the prospective memory task. Furthermore, increases in motivation to perform the prospective task seem to help remedy prospective memory deficits in young adults in the naturalistic setting.

Indexed as

AttentionIntentionSocial EnvironmentAdolescentAdultAgedAgingFemaleGames, ExperimentalHumansImaginationMaleMiddle AgedMotivationNeuropsychological TestsPsychometrics

Identifiers

PMID21058832
PMCPMC3071572
OpenAlexW2114809137

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.