Abstract
Prospective memory (PM) is the process associated with the task of realizing delayed intentions in the future. Researchers distinguish two types of PM, namely time-based PM (tbPM) and event-based PM (ebPM). Experiment 1 investigated the developmental trajectory of 3- to 5-year-old preschool children’s PM ability, and the occurrence of delayed retrieval (children execute the PM task in a larger window of opportunity) in both tbPM and ebPM tasks. Results revealed that the 5-year-old children outperformed the 3- and 4-year-old children in PM. Moreover, delayed retrieval was more likely to occur in tbPM task than in ebPM task. In Experiment 2, the influence of ongoing task (OT) difficulty on PM performance was investigated with a sample of 5-year-old children. Results revealed no significant effect of OT difficulty on PM performance. In Experiment 3, we improved children’s motivation level to complete the OT, then explored the influence of OT difficulty on children’s PM performance. Results revealed that the effect of OT difficulty on PM performance became significant after increasing the children’s motivation to complete the OT. These results provide insights into the mechanism of attentional resource allocation in PM tasks and have crucial educational and social implications.
Highlights
Prospective memory (PM) is the process associated with the task of realizing delayed intentions in the future (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990; Einstein et al, 1992; Ford et al, 2012)
Researchers investigated the effect of ongoing task (OT) absorption on PM performance with a sample of 9- to 10-year-old and 6- to 7-year-old children; the results revealed that the provision of a less absorbing OT was associated with better PM performance (Kliegel et al, 2013)
The DR score ratio was used as an index of the portion of the PM tasks that the participants completed in the form of delayed retrieval among all completed PM tasks
Summary
Prospective memory (PM) is the process associated with the task of realizing delayed intentions in the future (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990; Einstein et al, 1992; Ford et al, 2012). In tbPM tasks, intentions are executed at a specific time-point in the future or after a definite time span has elapsed (Wang et al, 2008); for example, remembering to call a friend on their birthday or remembering to take medicine after half an hour. In ebPM tasks, the appropriate moment for task execution is indicated by an external cue (Talbot and Kerns, 2014) such as remembering to give friends a message upon encountering them. Interest in the development of PM has increased within the past decade (Kvavilashvili et al, 2008) in recognition of its critical educational and social implications (Kayla and David, 2014)
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