Survey of Brain Waves and Time-Based Prospective Memory Performance in University Students of Kurdistan in 2015-2016: A Descriptive Study

Prospective memory refers to the ability of remembering some special tasks in the future. Prospective memory performance is very crucial for daily life. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine brain waves and prospective memory performance among Kurdistan university students in 2015-2016. In this descriptive study, the statistical population included all Kurdistan University students in 2015-2016 (Humanities and Social Sciences, Foreign Languages and Literature, Basic Sciences and Agriculture faculties). First some students were selected through convenience sampling and among them 70 ones, who desired to participate in the study, were evaluated. According to computerized Time-Based Prospective Memory performance score, the participants were divided to two groups: high performance group (N:22) and low performance group (N:33). Brain waves was recorded with ProComp 2 device. Data were analyzed with Multivariate analysis of variance.
Results The results showed that individuals with high prospective memory score had higher amount of alpha waves compared to individual with low prospective memory (p<0.05). The results indicated the differences between individuals with high and low score of Time-Based Prospective Memory performance. So evaluating brain waves of old people or people with memory complaints can probably lead to facilitating memory problems diagnosis and providing the ground for immediate interventions