Older adults often have problems with prospective memory - remembering to carry out future intentions such as taking medication on time. This study examined age-by-mood interactions in prospective memory. Happy, sad or neutral mood was induced in young and older adults before measuring prospective memory performance. For younger adults, both happy and sad mood states caused more forgetting of intentions compared to being in a neutral mood. Older adults had worse memory than young overall, but showed no mood effects. These results may indicate that older adults prioritise mood maintenance over cognitive tasks such as remembering intentions. It is important for future aging research to consider mood states when looking at age-related differences in cognition.
The present study examined age-by-mood interactions in prospective memory and the potential role of attentional control. Positive, negative, or neutral mood was induced in young and older adults. Subsequent time-based prospective memory performance was tested, incorporating a measure of online attentional control shifts between the ongoing and the prospective memory task via time monitoring behavior. Mood impaired prospective memory in the young, but not older, adults. Moderated mediation analyses showed that mood effects in the young were mediated by changes in time monitoring. Results are discussed in relation to findings from the broader cognitive emotional aging literature.
Reference
Schnitzpahn, K.M., Thorley, C., Phillips, L.H., Voigt, B,Threadgold, E. Hammond, E.R., Mustafa, B. & Kliegel, M. (2014). Mood differentially affects time-based prospective memory performance in young and older adults: the mediating role of time monitoring. Psychology & Aging, 29, 264–270