Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11/4/2025

Using Cognitive Offloading to Mitigate Age-Related Declines in Prospective Memory

Award Number: R16GM146705
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/15/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2026

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Using Cognitive Offloading to Mitigate Age-Related Declines in Prospective Memory - PROJECT SUMMARY With an increasing aging population showing memory declines, many of which remain untreatable, finding ways to reduce prospective memory failures is critical for healthy aging. Prospective memory is necessary for maintaining independence with increased age and failures of prospective memory are associated with a variety of health consequences and difficulties in daily activities. For example, over 55% of older adults do not adhere to medication instructions, leading to the annual hospitalization of over 200,000 older adults due to adverse drug reactions and billions of dollars annually in avoidable direct healthcare costs. Offloading information onto external sources, such as setting an alarm to take medication, provides an easy and effective means to mitigate age- related prospective memory declines. However, a lack of basic knowledge about the cognitive and metacognitive processes underlying offloading decisions presents barriers to effective implementation. The purpose of this proposal is to address these gaps in knowledge by examining the role of offloading during prospective memory encoding, storage, and retrieval. This will be accomplished by combining behavioral and physiological (pupillary) measures to examine how and when age-related breakdowns in prospective memory occur (Aim 1) and examining how strategy training can be used to ameliorate age declines in remembering (Aim 2). The results will provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for identifying the mechanisms underlying prospective memory, the source of age-related declines in prospective memory, and the efficacy of cognitive and strategy training as a memory enhancement technique. The long-term goal of this research is to develop the capacity to identify who will benefit most from strategy training interventions and which specific strategies should be targeted. Individually tailored treatment options will result in increased ability to improve cognitive functioning for those experiencing age-related memory decline. This work is innovative in its novel use of pupillometry to examine cognitive processes not otherwise observable with standard behavioral measures and through the development of an online training tool to improve everyday prospective memory. The findings will be significant for understanding treatment options to improve prospective memory functioning in younger adults, older adults, and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $249,908 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	002	4	9/9/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$19,137
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	3	12/5/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$38,271
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	001	4	8/28/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$192,500
														Subtotal = $249,908

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $192,500 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	3	8/7/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$192,500
														Subtotal = $192,500

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $254,955 )
2023	2023	THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S. NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	001	2	8/31/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$62,455
2023	2023	THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S. NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	2	8/2/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$192,500
														Subtotal = $254,955

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $192,500 )
2022	2022	THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON	701 S. NEDDERMAN DR	ARLINGTON	TX	76019	TARRANT	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	1	9/9/2022	NEW	$192,500
														Subtotal = $192,500

Grand Total All Awards = $889,863

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Using Cognitive Offloading to Mitigate Age-Related Declines in Prospective Memory

Award Number: R16GM146705

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/15/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2026

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