(296) Meta-Prospective Memory Accuracy in Healthy Older Adults and Older Adults with Suspected Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Rural Setting

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Objective: This study examined if the relationship between generalized appraisals and task-specific appraisals of one’s prospective memory (PM) and actual PM performance (i.e., meta-PM accuracy) differed between healthy and suspected mild cognitive impairment (sMCI) older adults.

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Method: 50 healthy and 30 sMCI older adults were recruited from a rural community and outpatient neuropsychology clinic. Data collected included self-reported appraisals and task-specific predictions/postdictions of PM performance, objective PM performance, and executive functioning (EF) measures.

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Results: The sMCI group had significantly lower scores on objective PM tasks (t = 5.13, p<.001), as well as EF measures related to simple (t = -3.72, p<.001) and complex task-switching (t = 4.82, p<.001). Moreover, sMCI participants displayed higher task-specific meta-PM inaccuracies compared to the healthy group (t = -3.72, p < .001), but displayed relatively equivalent generalized meta-PM (Z = 1.58, p = .11). Notably, the sMCI group’s task-specific inaccuracies became non-significant compared to the healthy group on the final long-term PM tasks (item 3: t = -1.64, p = .11; item 4: t = -0.66, p = .51) after exposure to metacognitive reflection on the first PM tasks. Despite lower scores on EF measures and more inaccurate task-specific meta-PM, EF performance did not explain task-specific meta-PM differences between groups beyond neurocognitive status, utilizing hierarchical regression.

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Conclusions: Using these data, sMCI patients may be better assisted by metacognitive calibration strategies, EF protocols, and the implementation of general compensatory memory strategies as targets for early intervention and prevention of neurocognitive decline.