Reminders Through Association

Abstract

People often fail to follow through on good intentions. While limited self-control is frequently the culprit, another cause is simply forgetting to enact intentions when opportunities arise. We introduce a novel, potent approach to facilitating follow-through: the reminders-through-association approach. This approach involves associating intentions (e.g., to mail a letter on your desk tomorrow) with distinctive cues that will capture attention when you have opportunities to act on those intentions (e.g., Valentine’s Day flowers that arrived late yesterday, which are sitting on your desk). We showed that cue-based reminders are more potent when the cues they employ are distinctive relative to (a) other regularly encountered stimuli and (b) other stimuli encountered concurrently. Further, they can be more effective than written or electronic reminder messages, and they are undervalued and underused. The reminders-through-association approach, developed by integrating and expanding on past research on self-control, reminders, and prospective memory, can be a powerful tool for policymakers and individuals.

Academic procrastination and goal accomplishment: A combined experimental and individual differences investigation

“…Because their memory for those goals were in part predictive of goal accomplishment in this study, it is possible that sending concrete reminders of the goals and implementation intentions (or at least letting subjects take home a written copy of their intervention exercise) might have made the interventions more successful. In light of recent research highlighting the importance of reminders for following through on one's intentions (Rogers & Milkman, 2016), combining the current interventions with timely reminders might be effective.…”

A Brief Primer on Learning and Memory-Based Strategies to Enhance Memory Function

“…Remembering to complete a memory in the future (e.g., taking medicine with dinner) is referred to as prospective memory. To help facilitate prospective memory, use an external cue (e.g., reminders through associations [57]) and place it in a prominent location (e.g., place your pill container in the kitchen that will be observable when preparing dinner); create imaginary cues when it is difficult to use an external cue (e.g., when dining out at a restaurant, imagine that the waiter/waitress is named Paul/Paula, with the "P" prompting you to take your pill out of your pocket to be taken with the meal), use implementation intentions (i.e., "if-then" statements, such as, if I see XX, I am going to do YY); complete the task when you think of it (i.e., when the idea comes into your mind, do it at that moment, as opposed to telling yourself that you will do it in a few minutes or later in the day); and after completing the task, make a note of it (e.g., after taking the medication, check it off on the calendar, as it may be problematic if you failed to remember that you took the medicine, and then later in the day, another dose was taken) [58].…”

Persistence as Returning: An Integrative Review of Theory and Research on Continued Goal Pursuit

“…Cues in the environment (aside from means) can also prime goals, and people can leverage this process to facilitate prospective memory (i.e., remembering an intention in the future, McDaniel & Einstein, 2000). The properties of these cues (e.g., their distinctiveness) similarly determine the strength of their connection to the to-be-remembered intention (i.e., the goal), and therefore determine their effectiveness (Rogers & Milkman, 2016). Many more goal qualities affect activation (for a detailed review see Förster, Liberman, & Friedman, 2007).…”

“…For example, someone who is not persisting because they do not recognize opportunities for goal pursuit (which they might experience as forgetting about their goal) should use strategies that help activate the goal (e.g., reminder cues, Rogers & Milkman, 2016). Someone who fails to take advantage of pursuit opportunities despite recognizing them should use different strategies (e.g., precommitment devices, Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002).…”