Previous research has shown that older adults can have difficulty remembering to fulfill delayed intentions. In the present study, we explored whether age differences in prospective memory are affected when participants are permitted to set reminders to help them remember. Furthermore, we examined whether metacognition can influence the use of such strategies and help older adults compensate for age-related memory decline. In this pre-registered study (N = 88) we administered a computerized task requiring a sample of older (aged 65-84) and younger (aged 18-30) participants to remember delayed intentions for a brief period, manipulating the possibility of setting reminders to create an external cue. Performance of the older group was significantly poorer than the younger group. Moreover, older adults were overconfident in their memory abilities and did not fully compensate for impaired performance, even when strategic reminder setting was permitted. These findings suggest that older adults possess limited metacognitive knowledge about their prospective memory limits and may not fully utilize cognitive offloading strategies to compensate for memory decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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战略提醒设置中的年龄差异和元认知的代偿作用。

先前的研究表明，老年人可能难以记住要完成延迟的意图。在本研究中，我们探讨了当允许参与者设置提醒以帮助他们记住时，前瞻性记忆的年龄差异是否会受到影响。此外，我们研究了元认知是否可以影响此类策略的使用并帮助老年人弥补与年龄有关的记忆力下降。在这项预先注册的研究（N = 88）中，我们执行了一项计算机化任务，要求年龄较大（65-84岁）和年龄较小（18-30岁）的参与者样本在短时间内记住延迟的意图，从而操纵设定的可能性提醒创建外部提示。老年组的表现明显较年轻组差。而且，老年人对自己的记忆能力过于自信，即使允许策略性提醒设置，也无法完全弥补他们的成绩下降。这些发现表明，老年人对其前瞻性记忆极限的元认知知识有限，并且可能无法充分利用认知减退策略来弥补记忆力下降。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。