Materials and Method: A total of 88 healthy and voluntary participants participated in the experiment. The time- and event-based prospective memory tasks were presented on a computer-screen. Participants were instructed to count the living/non-living objects, and when they saw the prospective memory target on the right corner of the screen, they were asked to press the spacebar on the keyboard.
Results: A 2×2 analysis of variance was conducted. We found an agerelated decline in event-and time-based prospective memory. In addition, the aging effect was greater in the time-based prospective Memory task, which requires more executive function than the event-based prospective memory task. The eye-tracking findings suggest that there is no monitoring deficit among older adults in either prospective memory task.
Conclusion: We conclude that aging deficits in prospective memory tasks may not be due to monitoring deficits. Instead, executive functions other than monitoring are discussed as possible mechanisms underlying older adults" reduced prospective memory performance.
Keywords : Memory; Aged; Young Adult; Executive Function; Eye-Tracking Technology