Introduction: Prospective memory (PM) is a fundamental requirement for independent living which might be
prematurely compromised in the neurodegenerative process, namely in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a
typical prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) phase. Most encoding manipulations that typically enhance
learning in healthy adults are of minimal benefit to AD patients. However, there is some indication that
these can display a recall advantage when encoding is accompanied by the physical enactment of the material.
The aim of this study was to explore the potential benefits of enactment at encoding and cue-action relatedness
on memory for intentions in MCI patients and healthy controls using a behavioral PMexperimental paradigm.
Method: We report findings examining the influence of enactment at encoding for PM performance in MCI
patients and age- and education-matched controls using a laboratory-based PM task with a factorial independent
design. Results: PM performance was consistently superior when physical enactment was used at encoding
and when target–action pairs were strongly associated. Importantly, these beneficial effects were
cumulative and observable across both a healthy and a cognitively impaired lifespan as well as evident in
the perceived subjective difficulty in performing the task. Conclusions: The identified beneficial effects of
enacted encoding and semantic relatedness have unveiled the potential contribution of this encoding technique
to optimize attentional demands through an adaptive allocation of strategic resources. We discuss our findings
with respect to their potential impact on developing strategies to improve PM in AD sufferers.