Henry et al. (2004)

A Meta-Analytic Review of Prospective Memory and Aging.

Psychology and Aging, 19(1), 27-39

Find It

DOI

Abstract

A meta-analysis of prospective memory (PM) studies revealed that in laboratory settings younger participants outperform older participants on tests of both time- and event-based PM (rs=-.39 and -.34, respectively). Event-based PM tasks that impose higher levels of controlled strategic demand are associated with significantly larger age effects than event-based PM tasks that are supported by relatively more automatic processes (rs=-.40 vs. -.14, respectively). However, contrary to the prevailing view in the literature, retrospective memory as measured by free recall is associated with significantly greater age-related decline (r=-.52) than PM, and older participants perform substantially better than their younger counterparts in naturalistic PM studies (rs=.35 and .52 for event- and time-based PM, respectively). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Reference

Henry, J. D., MacLeod, M. S., Phillips, L. H., & Crawford, J. R. (2004). A meta-analytic review of prospective memory and aging. Psychology and aging, 19(1), 27.

What Rests on This

1 mechanism cites this source. Each finding below is quoted as it appears on that mechanism's own page.

Prospective Initiation Memory Processes

Measured in humans

Age effects are reliable in the lab: younger adults outperformed older adults on time-based (r = -.39) and event-based (r = -.34) tasks, yet older adults did better in naturalistic everyday tasks (r = .35 event-based, r = .52 time-based)