Prospective memory (PM) is a critically important component of memory that often declines in late adulthood. Implementation intentions, an encoding strategy, consisting of an explicit if-then "I will . . ." statement, has been effectively used to enhance older adults' prospective memory function. However, it remains to be established whether forming a mental representation of carrying out the task when forming the intention enhances these age effects, as well as whether the type of cue (event or time based) moderates age-related benefits. To test these questions, we randomly allocated 125 younger and 125 older adults to 1 of 5 conditions, in which they were directed to use different strategies when forming their PM intentions (Statement Only, Imagine in Game, Statement and Imagine Combined, Imagine in Daily Life, Control). The results indicated that use of the implementation intentions statement alone and in combination with forming a mental representation of carrying out the task substantially enhanced older adults' event- but not time-based PM. In addition, while the Statement Only condition reduced age-related difficulties for event-based tasks, the condition that combined this statement with visualization led to the greatest reduction in age effects. These data suggest that both rehearsing the implementations intention in the specific statement format combined with visualizing may be optimally effective for enhancing PM function in late adulthood but that the type of PM cue is an important moderator of these age effects. In addition to theoretical implications, these results may inform the refinement of interventions focused on enhancing PM function in late adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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成年后期的实施意图和前瞻性记忆功能。

前瞻性记忆（PM）是记忆的重要组成部分，成年后期通常会下降。实现意图，一种编码策略，由明确的if-then“ I will ...”组成 陈述，已被有效地用于增强老年人的前瞻性记忆功能。然而，建立意图时形成一种执行任务的心理表现是否会增强年龄效应，以及提示的类型（基于事件或时间）是否适度与年龄相关的收益，还有待确定。为了测试这些问题，我们将125位年轻人和125位老年人随机分配到5个条件中的1个，在指导他们形成PM意图时，他们要使用不同的策略（仅陈述，想象游戏，陈述和想象结合，想象每天）生活，控制）。结果表明，单独使用实施意图陈述以及与形成执行任务的心理表征相结合，可大大增强老年人的事件性PM，但不能增强基于时间的PM。此外，虽然“仅声明”条件减少了基于事件的任务的与年龄相关的困难，但将该声明与可视化相结合的条件最大程度地降低了年龄影响。这些数据表明，以特定的语句格式进行预演并结合可视化效果，对于增强成年后期的PM功能可能是最佳的效果，但PM提示的类型是这些年龄效应的重要调节剂。除了理论意义外，这些结果可能有助于完善针对在成年后期增强PM功能的干预措施。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。