Prospective Memory

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Prospective memory allows us to make plans and to recollect them later at the right time and place. We require prospective memory, for example, to remember to pick up groceries on the way home from work or for taking medication following a prescribed schedule. The long term goal of my research is to advance our understanding of age-related changes in prospective memory. A number of theories make predictions about age-related changes in prospective memory and my research will examine a number of these predictions. However, a review of previous literature highlights several pressing problems that hinder advancements in prospective memory research. First, there is a lack of reliable and valid objective measures of prospective memory. At present, the vast majority of prospective memory research has been conducted using binary success/failure indexes that are unreliable and inefficient, and often result in uninterpretable findings. Second, the existing self-report measures of prospective memory failures are reliable but not valid (i.e., do not measure prospective memory). Third, previous research has generally failed to distinguish between prospective memory and vigilance/monitoring, related yet distinct abilities that are differentially affected by variables such as aging, resulting in many seemingly contradictory theoretical claims and findings. The proposed research has four short term goals. The first goal is to develop reliable continuous (as opposed to binary) measures of prospective memory. The second goal is to develop reliable and valid self-reports of prospective memory failures. The third goal is to examine the distinction between prospective memory and vigilance/monitoring. The fourth and final goal is to examine (a) how exactly prospective memory changes across the life-span, (b) whether changes in processing speed, retrospective memory, and other cognitive processes explain age changes in prospective memory, and (c) the relationship between prospective memory, personality, and intelligence. Addressing these objectives is important from both theoretical and applied perspectives because prospective memory is critical for sustaining older adults' independent living.