Abstract
Recent research has shown that pro-social prospective memory, i.e., remembering to do something for others, is negatively affected by the presence of small material rewards. While this competition between pro-social and self-gain motives leads to poor memory for the intention, people do not seem to be aware of the possible collision effects of competing motives (Brandimonte et al., 2010). Extending research on this general topic, in two activity-based prospective memory (PM) experiments, we explored the effects of different types and amount of rewards on pro-social prospective remembering. In Experiment 1, participants could receive no reward, a low material reward (1 euro), or a high material reward (20 euro) for their pro-social PM action. In Experiment 2, their pro-social PM performance could be rewarded or not with an image reward (disclosure of their altruistic behavior). Results revealed that introducing a small material reward (Experiment 1) or a non-material reward (Experiment 2) impaired pro-social PM. However, introducing a high material reward eliminated the impairment (Experiment 1). Importantly, in Experiment 1, ongoing task performance in the pro-social condition was faster than in the No PM condition. However, in Experiment 2, ongoing task costs emerged in the presence of a non-material reward, as compared to the pro-social condition. Also, results from two independent ratings showed that people's predictions on their future pro-social actions were at odds (Experiment 1) or in line (Experiment 2) with actual PM performance. It is suggested that, according to the nature and amount of rewards, memory for a pro-social future action may be modulated by conscious or unconscious motivational mechanisms.
Highlights
Remembering to do things in the future is known as prospective memory (PM)
As far as good actions become suspected of being motivated by appearances, trying to foster pro-social memory by making glory public might be a source of noise that undermines intrinsic motivation (Bénabou and Tirole, 2006), just as small material rewards do
The present results added important refinements to the picture emerging from previous research by showing that, under socially relevant conditions, introducing a small material reward or a non-material reward dramatically decreased memory for the intention, whereas a high material reward left pro-social PM performance unaltered
Summary
Remembering to do things in the future is known as prospective memory (PM). In the past decades, research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying PM has made enormous progress (see Brandimonte et al, 1996; Kliegel et al, 2008). Some researchers have recently noticed (Ellis and McGann, 2005; Brandimonte and Ferrante, 2008; Altgassen et al, 2010; Brandimonte et al, 2010; Cook et al, 2015) that investigating this important aspect of everyday life only in terms of a cognitive analysis neglects the fundamental social and motivational components of this activity (see Meacham and Kushner, 1980). A loss-frame was associated with a monetary punishment for failing to respond to cues while a gain-frame was associated with a monetary reward for remembering to respond to cues. Results showed that both gain and loss frames improved PM compared with a no-frame condition, and that this increase in PM is not associated with an increase in ongoing costs
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