What is the Effect of Focality on Prospective Memory Performance in Stroke?

Abstract

Prospective memory (PM) is one aspect of memory that is of huge importance in daily life. PM refers to the ability to carry out an intended action after a delay, for example, to call your aunt tomorrow. PM tasks can be categorized into time-based and event-based PM, depending on the cue (respectively, a specific time or a specific event). In healthy individuals, eventbased PM performance depends on different factors, for example, the type of cue. According to the multiprocess framework, cues that are embedded in the ongoing task (focal) are more easily to process than cues that are not a direct part of the ongoing task (non-focal), as different cognitive processes are used. Focal cues are processed in a quick, automatic way, whereas non-focal cues require a more controlled way of processing, also demanding more executive control. PM seems to be especially impaired in individuals who suffered brain damage, such as stroke. As it is not clear if PM in stroke functions the same way as PM in healthy individuals, the current study examined whether decreasing executive control demands also increase PM performance in stroke. Therefore, we administered a PM task, in which the focality of the cue was experimentally manipulated. Results show that individuals who experienced a stroke perform significantly better on the focal, less demanding task than on the non-focal task, supporting a multiprocess framework also in stroke. The current study contributes to the theoretical framework around the underlying processes of PM performance in stroke, giving implications to increase daily-life functioning in individuals who experienced a stroke. Keywords: stroke, prospective memory, focality, multiprocess framework