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Time-based Prospective Memory

Time-based prospective memory is a type of prospective memory, in which remembrance is triggered by a time cue that indicates that a given action needs to be performed, for example remembering to watch a television program at 3 pm. In contrast to time-based prospective memory, event-based prospective memory is triggered by an environmental cue that reminds one to perform a certain action. For example, remembering to send a letter (action) after seeing a mailbox (cue). While event-based memory is dependent on the environment, time-based prospective memory is self-initiated; one must specifically monitor the passage of time.

Age
Age is a significant factor that affects prospective memory. Smith et al. (2010) conducted a study comparing time-based prospective memory in children and young adults; they found an increase in preparatory attentional processing for adults –suggesting an improvement of time-based prospective memory from childhood to young adulthood. Consistent with the results of the prior study, Ceci and Bronfenbrenner (1985) found that in a time-based task with 10-year-olds and 14-year-olds, time monitoring was greater among older children.

Another study by Kvavilashvili et al. (2009) comparing time-based prospective memory among young adults (18-30 year olds), young-old adults (60-75 year olds) and old-old adults (79-90 year olds), found that young adults performed the best on time-based tasks. A study further compared the difference between young-old adults and old-old adults in time-based prospective memory, finding that young-old adults outperformed old-old adults. The findings of the above studies suggest that there is ongoing improvement of time-based prospective memory from childhood into young adulthood; however, but a decline begins in later adulthood.

Cannabis
Marijuana is the world's most commonly abused illicit drug. The effects of cannabis are associated with deficits in memory, learning, decision-making, and speed of processing. Montgomery et al. (2012) conducted a study on twenty cannabis-only users and 20 non-illicit drug users to test the effect of cannabis on prospective memory. Cannabis users found it more difficult to perform an action at a certain time than nonusers. Th results provide support for the cannabis-related deficits in prospective memory.

Ecstasy
Prospective memory impairments in recreational drug users have been documented in recent years. Hadjiefthyvoulou et al. (2011) compared performance of ecstasy users, cannabis users, and nonuser on both event and time-based prospective memory tasks. Ecstasy users performed significantly worse in comparison to both cannabis only and non-user groups on time-based tasks. Time-based prospective memory is sensitive to regular and even moderate use of ecstasy. More importantly, ecstasy users experience generalized difficulties with prospective memory, demonstrating that these deficits are likely to have important implications for daily functioning.

Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine more commonly known as crystal meth, is a highly addictive drug. A fair amount of research indicates that the use of methamphetamine is associated with neurocognitive impairment, more recently there has been a focus on whether these difficulties extend to memory for future intentions. Rendell et al. (2009) found that impairments in time-based prospective memory existed in both current and former users of methamphetamine.

Alcohol
Research has shown that heavy alcohol use clearly leads to deficits in memory. Less is known about the effects of alcohol on day-to-day memory function, specifically, prospective memory, remembering to do things at some future point in time. The results of a study conducted by Heffernan et al. (2010) suggest that binge drinking in the teenage years leads to impairments in everyday prospective memory. A study by Heffernan and O'Neill (2011) further investigated the effect has alcohol on time-based prospective memory and concluded that binge drinking was associated with significantly reduced performance on time-based tasks.

Disease and disorders
There has been an increase in interest of studying prospective memory deficiencies in individuals with disease or disorder; because daily life largely relies on previously planned intentions a lack thereof would cause major issues for an affected individual. It has been found that many diseases and disorders have negative impacts on prospective memory; the effects extend from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.

Parkinson's disease
A study by Costa et al. (2008) found that individuals with Parkinson’s disease were significantly less accurate in time-based tasks than healthy participants; however, there was no difference between the groups in ability to retrieve the intention to perform the actions in the event-based condition. For example, a person with Parkinson’s disease might forget to take their prescription at a certain time of the day, but are less likely to forget if they see the medicine bottle. A study by Katai et al. (2003) found results inconsistent with those of Costa and colleagues; individuals with Parkinson’s disease were not significantly impaired on time-based tasks, however, these specific results were affected by the fact that 18 out of the 20 participants were receiving levodopa medication –which has been proven to increase performance on time-based tasks.

Research done by Costa et al. (2008) specifically focused on studying the effect of levodopa on the performance of individuals with Parkinson’s disease on a time-based prospective memory task. Participants were evaluated in two conditions: after levodopa administration and without drug administration. The researchers found that participants were significantly more accurate in complying with the time-based task following levodopa medication as opposed to the individuals who did not take medication.

Alzheimer's disease
Carrying out an action depends on a variety of aspects, including how easily the intended action comes to mind. People may be able to remember what they intend to do, but will only be successful if the information is springs to mind at the appropriate time. People with Alzheimer’s disease have great difficulty in remembering to do things, and doing them at the right moment. A study by Spíndola and Brucki (2011), found significant deficits for time-based tasks in patients with Alzheimer's compared with their healthy counterparts.

A failure to perform future intentions can have serious consequences. For example failing to remember to turn off the burner after a 10-minute cooking time. However, there has been a number of studies, which indicate that individuals with Alzheimer's disease can learn a prospective memory task using spaced-retrieval practice; it is an effective means of helping cognitively impaired older adults maintain functional independence. >

Schizophrenia
Impairment of memory is a major problem for people diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Studies have shown that participants with schizophrenia were significantly impaired on prospective memory tasks; both time-based and event-based.

Medication and a therapeutic technique known as cognitive behavioral therapy are equally important in treating schizophrenia. Prospective memory is important for treating schizophrenia because affected individuals have to remember to take their medication or attend a therapy appointment. Failure to do so can result in the re-emmergence of schizophrenic symptoms such as hallucinations, disorganized speech, and paranoia.

Emotion
Research strongly suggests that emotional processes influence accuracy and the way in which humans carry out intended actions. It has been found that the ability to carry out time-based intended actions is negatively affected when individuals are in depressive emotional states. A study done by Kliegel and Jager (2006) found that performance on time-based tasks suffered when individuals were in a depressive state, as opposed to in an anxious state. The time-based prospective memory task was vulnerable to negative influence of depression, presumably because the time-based task required a high degree of self-initiated, effortful processing; and effortful processing is thought to be diminished in depression.

Further support comes from research done by Jeong and Cranney (2009) who found that depression is negatively associated with time-based prospective memory performance; people in a depressive emotional state were less likely to execute intended actions on time.

Kliegel et al. (2005) investigated the effects of sad mood on time-based prospective memory, and found results consistent with those of the above two studies. However, the study suggests that it would be of interest to extend these results to investigate effects of happy mood fluctuations, because happy mood states impair executive functions more reliably than sad mood.

Motivational incentive
It is obvious that, to a large extent, people remember what they want to remember. If a person considers a task to be insignificant, they will be less motivated to remember the intention; and ultimately pay less attention to available time-cues. Thus, forgetting of the memory for the intended action is more likely to occur.

In a study by Jeong and Cranney (2009), it was shown that motivation had a rather strong impact on performance in time-based prospective memory tasks. The study involved students who were required to send text messages at a specific time; participants given the incentive of extra course credit (motivation condition) outperformed their counter parts on the time-based task. The results display a positive effect of high motivation on time-based prospective memory.

Another study, done by Kliegel et al. (2008), supports the aforementioned findings. This study explored the effect of motivation in two age groups (three year olds and five year olds) when completing the same prospective memory task, with different motivational conditions. In the high motivation condition there was no difference for the two age groups, however, in the low-motivation condition, the two age groups differed significantly, with a decline in the performance of three-year-old children.

In order to enhance time-based prospective memory, people should avoid low motivational states.

Cognitive load
Prospective memory is performed in the context of another activity. Since memory is limited with the respect to the amount of information it can hold, and the number of operations it can perform, a higher cognitive load would deteriorate performance on prospective memory tasks.

A study by Khan et al. (2008) examined the influence of cognitive load (low vs. high) on time-based prospective memory. The findings implied that time-based prospective memory is severely affected when cognitive load is high. The study attributed the poor performance on time-based tasks as a result of dividing attentional resources into actively monitoring time, self-initiating the response at the appropriate time and the ongoing task. Humans have limited attentional capacity, and therefore high cognitive load affects monitoring of time and consequently time-based prospective memory performance negatively. Numerous aspects of daily life depend on time-based prospective memory, ranging from daily activities such as remembering what time to meet a friend, to more important tasks such as remembering what time to take medication.