Figure 6.

Performance in an ongoing task was selectively impaired near the time of an anticipated future event. The probability of judging an interval as long (a) increased as a function of the interval duration, as expected. Performance, as measured by the slope of the probability function (b) declined immediately before the end of the daily session in the meal group (a) but not in the no-meal group (not shown). Importantly, the interaction between early vs. late time points and duration was significant for the meal group (a, p < 0.001) but not for the no-meal group (p = 0.1), and these group differences were significant as documented by the three-way interaction (p < 0.009). Similarly, the slope of the psychophysical function was smaller (i.e., poor performance) at the late relative to early time points (p = 0.009) in the meal group but not in the no-meal group (p = 0.8), and these group differences were significant as documented by the interaction (p = 0.03). The meal group anticipated the arrival of the meal, as documented by the increase in food-trough responses before the meal whereas the increase in food-trough responses was absent in the no-meal group (c). These data document a selective impairment in performance in an ongoing task near the time of an anticipated future event (but not at other times). (a–c) Error bars indicate SEM. Reproduced from Wilson, A. G. & Crystal, J. D. (2012). Prospective memory in the rat. Animal Cognition. 15, 349–358. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.