Exposure to natural environments or to their audiovisual representations has a restorative effect on attention and short-term memory. However, higher-level cognitive processes, such as decision making, have been overlooked. Additionally, studies have generally compared natural environments perceived to be restorative, such as woods, with built environments perceived to be nonrestorative, such as roads with traffic, paying less attention to built environments that could be restorative, such as libraries. We examined whether exposure to potentially restorative natural or built environments (vs. nonrestorative built environments) would improve the ability to apply decision rules to multi-attribute choices, an important aspect of decision-making competence. Fatigued participants completed parallel versions of the Applying Decision Rules task before and after being exposed to audiovisual representations of these environments. Performance improved after exposure to restorative natural environments, remained unchanged after exposure to restorative built environments, and deteriorated after exposure to nonrestorative built environments. Restorative effects were partially mediated by self-reported fatigue, but not mediated by changes in attention control, emotional state, or motivation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

We examined spontaneous external offloading in a study requiring participants to plan the shortest route to connect locations on maps while satisfying ordering constraints. We manipulated map difficulty (low/high) and the possibility for participants to offload cognition by allowing/not allowing them to use a pen during planning (offloading/no offloading). Participants used more types of offloading strategies in the high (vs. low) difficulty maps and showed a better performance in the offloading (vs. no offloading) condition in the high difficulty maps only. However, even in the low difficulty maps, cognition was offloaded, especially when participants solved the high difficulty maps first (perseveration effect). The use of offloading strategies and offloading-supported planning performance were positively related with visual search ability, while performance in the no offloading condition was positively related with spatial working memory. Findings show that offloading strategies are spontaneously deployed in a partly adaptive way in route planning on maps.

Decision-making competence refers to the ability to make judgments and decisions that follow normative criteria of rationality. Here, we review research on memory skills underlying decision-making competence from an adult lifespan perspective. First, we discuss how aspects of decision-making competence are associated with memory skills, and how situational and strategic variations may modulate these relationships. Then, we examine the relationships between age-related differences in decision-making competence and age-related differences in memory skills. Because the relationship between memory and decision-making may be reciprocal, we also consider research on how decisions may affect memory. Next, we discuss how decision-making competence may be built and maintained across the adult lifespan. Finally, we highlight open questions and propose possible future research directions.

Exposure to natural environments can promote recovery from mental fatigue and restore cognitive resources. However, previous research has tended to compare the restorative potential of hospitable natural environments, such as lakes, with the restorative potential of harsh built environments, such as streets with traffic. Thus, it has overlooked the potential restorativeness of hospitable built environments such as libraries, or the potentially limited restorativeness of harsh natural environments, such as deserts. Moreover, studies on perceived restorativeness have traditionally focused on four basic dimensions identified by Attention Restoration Theory (ART); being away, fascination, compatibility, and extent. However, they have scarcely considered two other relevant dimensions: opportunity for reflection (also identified by ART) and feeling of safety. Additionally, there is limited empirical evidence on the relationship between basic ART dimensions, reflection, and overall perceived restorativeness. In our study, we hypothesized that (1) cluster analysis would support categorizing 12 natural and 12 built environments into four clusters (hospitable natural, harsh natural, hospitable built, harsh built), based on ratings of the six abovementioned dimensions of perceived restorativeness, (2) ratings of ART dimensions, as summarized by a Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) score, reflection, and safety would predict overall perceived restorativeness, and (3) opportunity for reflection would partially mediate the relationship of the PRS score and safety with overall perceived restorativeness. We identified the four expected clusters of environments, plus a fifth cluster of functional built environments. While hospitable natural environments showed the greatest overall perceived restorativeness, hospitable built places were rated as more restorative than harsh natural ones, indicating that the distinction between natural and built environments may be too simplistic. Path analysis indicated that PRS score, reflection, and safety predict overall perceived restorativeness. Moreover, reflection partially mediated the relationship of PRS score, and safety in some environments, with overall perceived restorativeness.

The development of multitasking abilities was investigated in relation to working memory capacity, sustained attention, inhibition, and task switching. Using a new touch-screen task, 90 children aged 7-10 years were asked to monitor several timers running at different paces, and to press a button whenever a timer had completed its cycle. Results showed that a significant part of the variance in children's multitasking performance was explained by age, and performance increased significantly until about 8-9 years. Multitasking performance was generally affected by the number of tasks, but even more so in younger children. Sustained attention explained a significant part of the variance in triple-, but not dual-task performance; visuospatial working memory capacity explained variance in dual- and triple-task performance, even after controlling for age. In conclusion, multitasking develops considerably in middle childhood and may involve different processes than dualtasking.

We propose a new integrative framework of external time monitoring in prospective memory (PM) tasks and its relation with performance. Starting from existing empirical regularities and our theoretical analysis, the framework predicts that external monitoring in PM tasks comprises a first stage of loose monitoring to keep track of the passage of time, and a subsequent stage of finer-grained monitoring, based on interval reduction, to meet the PM deadline. Following our framework, we predicted and observed in three different datasets (N = 375): (1) a marked increase in external monitoring frequency in the final part of the period of the PM task, well captured by a proportional rate exponential growth function; (2) a positive association between individual compliance with this monitoring pattern and PM performance; (3) a positive relation between monitoring frequency in the time window immediately preceding the PM deadline and PM performance at the individual level; and (4) good individual compliance with an interval reduction pattern in external monitoring, especially in the time window closer to the PM deadline. These results support the proposed integrative framework, which has the potential to foster future research on external monitoring in PM and in other fields of cognitive science. 

Research on prospective memory has paid no attention to the way in which the intentions to be remembered are framed. In two studies on time-based prospective memory, participants had to remember multiple delayed intentions framed as time rules (i.e., respond every 7 min, every 10 min) or as a series of corresponding instances (i.e., respond at Times 7, 10, 14, 20, 21, 28, 30, etc.). We appraised the effects of intention framing on intention learning, intention representation, strategies used to set the upcoming intention, cognitive load (monitoring cost), and prospective memory performance. Study 1 involved three time rules and corresponding instances. The results showed that time rules are learned faster than corresponding instances and that intention frames shaped the way intentions were mentally represented. Furthermore, the rule frame was associated with a more cognitively demanding incremental planning strategy to establish the upcoming intention, whereas the instance frame promoted the serial recall of intentions. Study 2 replicated the results on representations and strategies with four time rules and corresponding sets of instances, and it showed better prospective memory performance following the instance frame than rule frame. Together, these studies show that two alternative ways of framing multiple delayed intentions in the same prospective memory task induce significant differences in the way intentions are represented, in the cognitive strategies used to set the upcoming intention, and in performance. Theoretical and applied implications of the results for the prospective memory field are discussed.

Cross-sectional studies have suggested age-related differences in decision-making competence, but these differences may also reflect cohort-related effects. We present a longitudinal study of age-related changes over 5 years in older adults (aged 60–85) for 3 important aspects of decision-making competence: resistance to framing, applying decision rules, and resistance to sunk costs. The findings show small age-related longitudinal declines in resistance to framing but no decline in applying decision rules or resistance to sunk costs. The results also indicate that individuals’ decision-making competence after 5 years is significantly related to their initial decision-making competence assessment and that the contribution of crystallized abilities to decision making in older adults is greater than previously thought.

Most everyday activities involve delayed intentions referring to different event structures and timelines. Yet, past research has mostly considered prospective memory (PM) as a dual-task phenomenon in which the primary task to fulfill PM intentions is realized within an ongoing secondary task. We hypothesized that these simplified simulations of PM may have obscured the role of spatial relational processing that is functional to represent and meet the increased temporal demands in more complex PM scenarios involving multiple timelines. To test this spatiotemporal hypothesis, participants monitored four digital clocks, with PM deadlines referring either to the same clock (single-context condition) or different clocks (multiple-context condition), along with separate tests of spatial ability (mental rotation task) and executive functioning (working memory updating). We found that performance in the mental rotation task incrementally explained PM performance in the multiple-context, but not in the single-context, condition, even after controlling for individual differences in working memory updating and ongoing task performance. These findings suggest that delayed intentions occurring in multiple ongoing task contexts reflect independent contributions of working memory updating and mental rotation and that spatial relational processing may specifically be involved in higher cognitive functions, such as complex PM in multiple contexts or multitasking.

Proactively coordinating one's actions is an important aspect of multitasking performance due to overlapping task sequences. In this study, we used fMRI to investigate neural mechanisms underlying monitoring of multiple overlapping task sequences. We tested the hypothesis that temporal control demands in multiple-task monitoring are offloaded onto spatial processes by representing patterns of temporal deadlines in spatial terms. Results showed that increased demands on time monitoring (i.e., responding to concurrent deadlines of one to four component tasks) increasingly activated regions in the left inferior parietal lobe and the precuneus. Moreover, independent measures of spatial abilities correlated with multiple-task performance beyond the contribution of working memory. Together, these findings suggest that monitoring and coordination of temporally overlapping task timelines rely on cortical processes involved in spatial information processing. We suggest that the precuneus is involved in tracking of multiple task timelines, whereas the inferior parietal lobe constructs spatial representations of the temporal relations of these overlapping timelines. These findings are consistent with the spatial offloading hypothesis and add new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the coordination of multiple tasks.