Discuss changes in prospective memory in the late adulthood phase of life.

Answers will vary. Prospective memory aids us in remembering things we have planned to do in the future, despite the passage of time and despite the occurrence of interfering events. A Swiss study examined the relationships between processing speed, working memory (the amount of information a person can keep in mind at once), prospective memory, and retrospective memory among 361 people between the ages of 65 and 80. It was found that age-related declines in processing speed and working memory-aspects of fluid intelligence-had important effects on retrospective memory. However, there were age-related declines in prospective memory that appeared to be independent of processing speed and working memory. In other words, even if fluid intelligence remained intact, prospective memory might decline, suggestive of powerful roles for attention and distractibility. Another study found that the age-related decline in prospective memory is greatest when the task to be completed is not crucial and the cues used to jog the memory are not very prominent. When the task is important and older adults use conspicuous cues to remind them, age-related declines in prospective memory tend to disappear. However, the adults have to be cognitively intact enough to plan the strategy.