Prospective Memory in a Virtual Reality Environment in Relation to Adaptive Functioning Among Older Adults

Prospective memory, or memory to carry out future intentions, is involved in carrying out everyday activities of daily living. Many have proposed using virtual reality to increase ecological validity in measuring everyday abilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between performance on prospective memory tasks "“ both in and out of virtual reality "“ and a performance-based measure of adaptive functioning. Older adults (N = 60, 60-90, M =73.30 , SD = 5.73) completed the Virtual Kitchen Protocol: Prospective Memory tasks, which includes tasks with both time-based and event-based prospective memory cues in and out of virtual reality, and the Texas Functional Living Scale, a performance-based measure of adaptive functioning. Prospective memory, both in and out of virtual reality, was associated with higher adaptive functioning. This suggests that participants with a higher score on the prospective memory tests also succeed in adaptive functioning.