Abstract
Prospective memory (PM) failures can have serious and life-threatening consequences, especially for individuals with cognitive impairments who experience frequent PM failures. Individuals may compensate for PM failures by using nondigital aids, interpersonal reminders, emerging digital reminder technology, or a combination thereof. We aimed to investigate the frequency that these types of aids are used and factors that predict individuals’ choice of memory aid usage.
Method: Participants were 673 adults from the general population. Participants completed online or paper questionnaires containing a checklist of PM aids used in the previous month, the Australian Personality Inventory, Martin and Park Environmental Demands Questionnaire, Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory, and demographic questions. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict use of memory aids.
Results: Participants reported using between 1 and 27 memory aids (M = 10.15, SD = 4.17) in the previous month. A combination of digital, nondigital, and interpersonal reminders was the preferred choice of memory aid usage (81%) over digital-only (0.3%), nondigital-only (0.9%) or interpersonal reminders only (0.6%). Choice of memory aid usage was best predicted by age, gender, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and self-reported PM.
Conclusions: The findings indicate that the general population rely on a multitude of digital, nondigital, and interpersonal reminders, often used in combination, to assist them in everyday PM tasks. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of using single as opposed to multiple memory aids. This research has important implications for the selection of compensatory memory aids in rehabilitation settings.
Method: Participants were 673 adults from the general population. Participants completed online or paper questionnaires containing a checklist of PM aids used in the previous month, the Australian Personality Inventory, Martin and Park Environmental Demands Questionnaire, Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory, and demographic questions. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict use of memory aids.
Results: Participants reported using between 1 and 27 memory aids (M = 10.15, SD = 4.17) in the previous month. A combination of digital, nondigital, and interpersonal reminders was the preferred choice of memory aid usage (81%) over digital-only (0.3%), nondigital-only (0.9%) or interpersonal reminders only (0.6%). Choice of memory aid usage was best predicted by age, gender, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and self-reported PM.
Conclusions: The findings indicate that the general population rely on a multitude of digital, nondigital, and interpersonal reminders, often used in combination, to assist them in everyday PM tasks. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of using single as opposed to multiple memory aids. This research has important implications for the selection of compensatory memory aids in rehabilitation settings.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 27 Jun 2019 |
| Event | 16th Neuropsychological Rehabilitation special interest group of the WFNR conference - Granada, Spain Duration: 27 Jun 2019 → 28 Jun 2019 https://www.mersevents.com/16th-NR-SIG-WFNR.html |
Conference
| Conference | 16th Neuropsychological Rehabilitation special interest group of the WFNR conference |
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| Country/Territory | Spain |
| City | Granada |
| Period | 27/06/19 → 28/06/19 |
| Internet address |