Prospective memory

Abstract

The planning of a future intention, maintaining it during a variable period of time, and recovering it in the expected moment and/or context has been explored under the umbrella term of Prospective Memory (PM). For instance, remember to deliver a message to a certain person or to take some medication at the appropriate time are activities decidedly dependent on a good PM function. In this context, the present work aims to provide a brief overview of the uprising research dedicated to PM, including an analysis of the definition, of the current theoretical approaches, and of the main procedures used in this field. Additionally, this review also covers some of the results obtained concerning the study of PM across development, the advanced neural correlates, and the strategies proposed to boost PM functioning. As final considerations, we pinpoint the main shortcomings and the potentialities ascribed to the PM research domain.

Communication-related aspects of prospective memory: an exploratory factor analysis of prospective memory questionnaires

“…The concept of cost can be explained by reviewing the two PM monitoring theories. The first theory, preparatory attentional monitoring theory ( 26 ) , explains that to detect the presence of PM execution cues, attentional resources must be devoted to the task, while the second theory, two-process theory ( 27 ) , explains the need for constant target-checking behavior. Only through continuous monitoring in anticipation of PM targets is the chance of PM execution increased, thereby lowering PM costs.…”

“…In addition to monitoring strategies, the overlap between ongoing and PM tasks (focality) is also important. According to the multiprocessing theory ( 26 ) , most focal tasks are retrieved spontaneously. Tasks with high focality, that is, if the nature of the PM task and the nature of the ongoing task are similar, have a higher probability of performing PM than tasks with low focality (nonfocal).…”

“…The delay between PM encoding and PM performance also plays a role. A longer delay would have greater PM costs than a shorter delay ( 26 ) .…”