The effect of the relationship between target and environmental cues on young and old adults on prospective memory: An eye tracking study

This study examines the effect of PM target and environmental cue relationship on the two different non-focal PM (event-based, time-based) performance, strategic monitoring and cue-driven monitoring in young and old adults. For this aim, we got through both eye-tracking and behavioral measurements. The study consists of 3 complementary experiments. In Experiment 1 (1A and 1B), a total of 57 healthy volunteer young participants (48 females, 9 males) aged 18-25 years; In Experiment 2. 24 young people (16 females, 8 males) aged between 18 and 25 years and 22 elderly (5 females, 19 males) over 65 years; In Experiment 3. 22 young adults (16 females, 6 males) aged between 18 and 25 years and 20 elderly adults (6 females, 14 males) over 65 years of age were involved. In the analysis of the data obtained from Experiment 1, independent groups t-test was conducted; In the analysis of Experiments 2 and 3, four separate 2 (Age: Young and Elderly) x 2 (Relation of Environmental Cues with Target: Related and Unrelated) two factor mixed ANOVA were conducted. According to the results of Experiment 1, it was experimentally demonstrated that the non-focal PM tasks designed within the scope of this study successfully measured the PM and strategic monitoring through both behavioral and eye-tracking measurements. In Experiment 2, age was found to have a significant effect on Event-based PM and strategic monitoring, but no difference was found between young and elderly adults in cue-driven monitoring. Besides, the presence of cues related to the PM target increased strategic monitoring and the number of cue-driven monitoring. However, the presence of the target-related clue did not result in the expected increase in the correct percentage of Event-based PM. In Experiment 3, as observed in Experiment 2, young adults were found to be more successful than elderly adults in terms of PM and strategic monitoring. Also, it was observed that the cues related to the Time-based PM target didn't affect the total number of focuses on the PM target area and the number of cue-driven monitoring.