Psychometric properties and adaptation of the Virtual Week in a sample of French young and older adults

Introduction

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to perform activities to be carried out in the future. This form of future-oriented cognition is crucial in daily life for managing activities as well as for maintaining independence and autonomy, especially during aging. This study focused on the Virtual Week, an assessment instrument of PM in which participants are asked to remember to perform lifelike activities.

Objectives

The present study aimed to provide a French adaptation of the Virtual Week and to test whether this adaptation was able to identify age-related declines in PM. We also evaluated the internal consistency and the split-half reliability of the adapted version.

Method

We collected data from 44 healthy younger (18–30 years) and 44 healthy older adults (65–80 years) and tested whether the French version of the Virtual Week was sensitive to decline in PM performance in older adults, in accordance to theories on normal aging and PM.

Results

The French Virtual Week was able to detect age-related decrements in PM and demonstrated strong psychometric properties.

Conclusion

These findings broadly support the sensitivity and the reliability of the French adaptation of the Virtual Week, thus encouraging its use in current clinical practice.