A naturalistic virtual reality task reveals difficulties in time-based prospective memory and strategic time-monitoring in children with ADHD
Seesjärvi, Erik; Zuber, Sascha; Joly-Burra, Emilie; Kliegel, Matthias; Salmi, Juha (2025-07-09)
Springer
09.07.2025
Seesjärvi, E., Zuber, S., Joly-Burra, E. et al. A naturalistic virtual reality task reveals difficulties in time-based prospective memory and strategic time-monitoring in children with ADHD. Sci Rep 15, 24722 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-08944-w
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© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202508195411
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202508195411
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Abstract
Time-based prospective memory (TBPM), which supports executing everyday actions at appropriate times, is a key cognitive skill generally weaker in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To better understand the mechanisms of TBPM, we used a naturalistic virtual reality task called Executive Performance in Everyday LIving (EPELI) to study TBPM in 71 children with ADHD and 71 typically developing peers aged 9–13 years in an ecologically relevant context. Our results revealed that children with ADHD showed lower performance on TBPM tasks not because of how frequently they monitored the time overall, but because they did so less strategically. More specifically, the degree of strategic time monitoring accounted for 22.1% of variance in TBPM performance and fully mediated the effect of ADHD. Together, the absolute frequency of clock-checking, the degree of strategic time monitoring, and ADHD status explained 53.9% of the variance in TBPM performance. As monitoring strategies can be trained, the present findings may have important implications for targeted support to help individuals with ADHD manage their schedules.
Time-based prospective memory (TBPM), which supports executing everyday actions at appropriate times, is a key cognitive skill generally weaker in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To better understand the mechanisms of TBPM, we used a naturalistic virtual reality task called Executive Performance in Everyday LIving (EPELI) to study TBPM in 71 children with ADHD and 71 typically developing peers aged 9–13 years in an ecologically relevant context. Our results revealed that children with ADHD showed lower performance on TBPM tasks not because of how frequently they monitored the time overall, but because they did so less strategically. More specifically, the degree of strategic time monitoring accounted for 22.1% of variance in TBPM performance and fully mediated the effect of ADHD. Together, the absolute frequency of clock-checking, the degree of strategic time monitoring, and ADHD status explained 53.9% of the variance in TBPM performance. As monitoring strategies can be trained, the present findings may have important implications for targeted support to help individuals with ADHD manage their schedules.
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