Time-Based and Event-Based Prospective Memory Across Adulthood: Underlying Mechanisms and Differential Costs on the Ongoing Task

“The decline in sensitivity to touch, pressure, and vibration becomes apparent by the fifth decade and progresses exponentially after age 65 or 70 (Bartlett et al., 1998; Hilz et al., 1998).”

“…memory as measured by event-based tasks (i.e., an externally presented cue indicates the appropriate moment to execute the intended action) or time-based tasks (i.e., the intended action must be carried out after a period of time has elapsed or at a certain time, Jäger & Kliegel, 2008).”

“This would, first, support the overall efficiency of digital reminders for task management and, second, overcome challenges in support of PM as intentions are generally triggered by either specific events or times [50].”

“By contrast, in the case of TBPM the findings converge towards a deleterious effect of age (d'Ydewalle, Bouckaert, & Brunfaut, 2001 ; Einstein et al, 1995 ; Jager & Kliegel, 2008 ).”

“…Maylor et al., 2002), but was inconsistent with those studies that found lower rates of clock checking in older adults (Einstein et al., 1995; McFarland & Glisky, 2009; Park et al., 1997) or equal rates of clock checking in younger and older adults (Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Gonneaud et al., 2011).”

“…Horn, & Kliegel, 2017; Horn, Bayen, & Smith, 2013; West & Bowry, 2005), whereas others have not (Albiński, Sedek, & Kliegel, 2012; Ihle, Ghisletta, & Kliegel, 2017; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; May, Manning, Einstein, Becker, & Owens, 2015; Mullet et al., 2013; Smith & Bayen, 2006; Smith & Hunt, 2014).”

“Later studies have pointed out that event-based PM tasks produce greater PM interference effects than time-based tasks [15,16,19].”

“28 ic,otc Jager ’08 [87] 1 event* 30 32 0.”

“…that time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is more sensitive to age effects than event-based prospective memory (d’Ydewalle, Bouckaert, & Brunfaut, 2001; Einstein, McDaniel, Richardson, Guynn, & Cunfer, 1995; Henry et al, 2004; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Park, Hertzog, Kidder, Morrell, & Mayhorn, 1997).”

“, [27], [5]).”

“…which time estimation is thought to be a central component (e.g., Block & Zakay, 2006; Cockburn, 2006; Graf & Grondin, 2006; Harris & Wilkins, 1982; Jáger & Kliegel, 2008; Kvavilashvili & Fisher, 2007; Labelle, Graf, Grondin, & Gagné-Roy, 2009; Mäntylä & Grazia-Carelli, 2006; Park, Hertzog,…”

“…et al., 1995; McFarland & Glisky, 2009; Park et al., 1997), others have found the opposite pattern (Logie et al., 2004; Maylor et al., 2002; Mäntylä, Del Missier, & Nilsson, 2009; Mioni & Stablum, 2014), and some have reported no group differences (Gonneaud et al., 2011; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008).”

“Although there are important differences between these two types of PM (e.g., Jäger & Kliegel, 2008), in the case of self-catching mind wandering, it appears that this activity can be both timeand event-based.”

“Some data from typically aging individuals suggest that event-based prospective memory is more resilient to aging than time-based prospective memory because time-based prospective memory tasks place increased demands on selfmonitoring [30], and time-based prospective memory tasks show the most consistent age-related d…”

“…finding is that participants’ ongoing task response times (RTs) often slow down significantly when maintaining a concurrent PM task relative to a condition in which no PM task is present (Einstein & McDaniel, 2010; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Smith, 2003; Smith, Hunt, McVay, & McConnell, 2007).”

“In one such study, Jäger and Kliegel (2008) found a significant PM cost to the ongoing task from a non-focal event-based task, but no PM cost from a timebased task.”

“Laboratory PM A paradigm embedding PM cues in a two-back picture task adapted from Jäger and Kliegel (2008) was used to assess PM in the laboratory.”

“Jäger and Kliegel (2008) also found that older and younger adults performed equivalently on a nonfocal task that relied on categorical cues.”

“This reflects a general increase in monitoring behavior, the typically observed prospective interference effect (e.g., Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Marsh, Hicks, Cook, Hansen, & Pallos, 2003).”

“Based on the preponderance of the literature (e.g., Einstein & McDaniel, 2010; Einstein et al., 2005; Harrison et al., 2014; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Kliegel et al., 2008; McDaniel et al., 2013; 2015; Mullet et al., 2013; Scullin, McDaniel, & Einstein, 2010; Scullin, McDaniel, Shelton, & Lee, 2010;…”

“…the possibility that participants’ responses were determined by verbal counting, trials with reaction times greater than 2000 ms were not included in the analyses, a criterion previously used to investigate pre-verbal cognitive abilities (e.g., Bharucha and Stoeckig, 1986; Jager and Kliegel, 2008).”

“…an N-back PM paradigm, as N-back working memory paradigms have been used repeatedly in previous PM studies (e.g., Altgassen et al., 2010; Ballhausen et al., 2017; Chen et al., 2017; Cona et al., 2015; Einstein et al., 1992; Einstein & McDaniel, 1990; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Oksanen et al., 2014).”

“…frequency of clock checking in the interval immediately before the target time (e.g., 2:50– 2:59) is an index of strategic “monitoring” and is associated with better PM performance (Jager & Kliegel, 2008; Joly-Burra et al., 2022; McFarland & Glisky, 2009; Mioni et al., 2020; Mioni & Stablum, 2014).”

“Overall, the decline in TBPM performance can be attributed to a difficulty to recruit sufficient attention and self-initiated resources to continue monitoring time throughout the task (Jáger and Kliegel 2008; Lecouvey et al. 2017; Maylor et al. 2002; Park et al. 1997).”

“Experiment 2 used nonspeci fi c targets that have been shown to produce high demands on proactive, preparatory attention, processes, and substantial age-related declines in performance (B. H. Ball & Aschenbrenner, 2018; J á ger & Kliegel, 2008).”

“…cues becomes more compromised with aging due to agerelated deterioration of the frontal lobes (d’Ydewalle et al., 2001; Einstein et al., 1995; J€ager & Kliegel, 2008); 2. to explore the differences between executing PM actions at different time delays and within or outside the experimental…”

“This so-called age-prospective memory paradox has been confirmed in different meta-analyses (Henry et al., 2004; Kliegel et al., 2008; Uttl, 2008), which mainly categorized tasks as either “laboratory” or “naturalistic” (Rummel et al., 2023).”

“Time-based prospective memory was assessed with a computerized task adapted from Jäger and Kliegel (2008).”

“Several meta-analyses in studies investigating the aging effect of PM consistently reported a decline of PM in older adults (e.g., Kliegel et al., 2008; Uttl, 2008).”

“from event‐based prospective memory? Older adults typically perform better in prospective memory tasks in which monitoring demands are low [1, 32, 34, 41].”

“Therefore, in-lab, event-based PM typically appears superior to time-based performance (e.g., Haines et al., 2020; Jager & Kliegel, 2008).”

“obtained in previous studies [6,10,20,21,23-25], was nonetheless contradictory with the results of the meta-analytical review by Kliegel et”

“…PM time approaches (Munaretto et al., 2022); many studies consistently showed that TBPM performance is increased when monitoring is deployed strategically (Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Joly-Burra et al., 2022; McFarland & Glisky, 2009; Mioni & Stablum, 2014; Munaretto et al., 2022; Zuber et al., 2019).”

“Nous pouvons en effet supposer que la nature event-based de la tâche ait pu faire appel à des processus de récupération spontanée de l’intention, moins sensibles au vieillissement pour ce type de tâche [27].”

“…the planning stage of PM (for a review of the four stages of PM, see Bayen et al., 2022), which has been shown to be less elaborate in older adults compared to younger adults, and thus has been suggested to contribute to lower execution of delayed intentions in older adults (Kliegel et al., 2008).”

“That is, the reaction time and accuracy performance would be better on the focal PM task, where the PM retrieval is spontaneous, compared to the non-focal PM task, which requires controlled monitoring processes (Einstein & McDaniel, 2010; Einstein et al., 2005; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008; Smith, 2003).”

“, the participant forgot to take photographs at the moments when they were being given the receipt (see [25,43,58] for the same procedure).”

“…across variants of the Einstein and McDan-iel paradigm, time-based PM accuracy is typically poorer than event-based PM accuracy (e.g., Conte & McBride, 2018; Einstein et al., 1995; Kliegel et al., 2001; Park et al., 1997) or at least equated to event-based PM accuracy (Jäger & Kliegel, 2008).”

“Several studies confirmed this model as they found worse task performance (slower response times or reduced task accuracy) in an ongoing task when prospective intentions were added [5, 40, 41, 42, 43].”

“Researchers have identified two types of PM (Einstein et al., 1995; Jager & Kliegel, 2008).”

“…wskazują, że zadania z kontekstem zdarzeniowym są lepiej wyko-nywane w porównaniu z zadaniami z kontekstem czasowym, zarówno przez osoby młodsze (Szarras, Jaskuła, Niedźwieńska, 2010), jak i osoby starsze, po 60. roku życia (Einstein i in., 1995; Park i in., 1997; Jäger, Kliegel, 2008).”

“…performance increasing throughout childhood, peaking in adolescence or young adult-hood, and decreasing again from middle adulthood onwards (e.g., Kliegel et al., 2008; Stelz & Altgassen, 2025; Zimmermann & Meier, 2006), mirroring the developmental pattern of executive functions (Best & Miller,…”

“Previous studies considered responses within ± 2.5 s of each target time as a prospective memory hit 53,54 .”

“…à confirmer cette hypothèse, plusieurs études conduites en laboratoire montrant des effets négatifs de l’âge plus grands sur les épreuves TB que sur les épreuves EB (e.g., Bastin & Meulemans, 2002 ; Einstein et al., 1995 ; Jäger & Kliegel, 2008 ; Park, Hertzog, Kidder, Morrell & Mayhorn, 1997).”

“The amount of attentional resources spent on the PM task are therefore taken away from the resources devoted to completing the ongoing task, creating a deficit in ongoing task performance—namely, cost or the interference effect (Jӓger & Kliegel, 2008; Marsh et al., 2003; Smith, 2003).”

“…time-based PM was motivated by studies showing no age-related deficits in event-based PM (Einstein & McDaniel, 1990; Einstein et al., 1995) while deleterious effects of age were found in time-based PM tasks (d'Ydewalle, Bouckaert, & Brunfaut, 2001; Einstein, et al., 1995; Jager & Kliegel, 2008).”