Prospective memory in dynamic environments: effects of load, delay, and phonological rehearsal

A new paradigm was developed to examine prospective memory performance in a visual-spatial task that resembles some aspects of the work of air traffic controllers. Two experiments examined the role of workload (number of aeroplanes that participants directed), delay (between receipt of prospective instructions and execution), and phonological rehearsal. High workload increased prospective memory errors but increasing delay from 1-3 or 5 minutes had no effect. Shadowing aurally presented text reduced prospective memory performance, presumably because it prevented verbal rehearsal of the prospective instructions. However, performance on the foreground task of directing aeroplanes to routine destinations was affected only by workload and not by opportunity for rehearsal. Our results suggest that ability to maintain performance on a routine foreground task while performing a secondary task--perhaps analogous to conversation--does not predict ability to retrieve a prospective intention to deviate from the routine.

Prospective memory in children: The effects of age and task interruption

Prospective memory (PM), remembering to carry out a task in the future, is highly relevant to children's everyday functioning, yet relatively little is known about it. For these reasons the effects of age and task interruption on PM were studied in 3 experiments. Children aged 4, 5, and 7 years were asked to name pictures in stacks of cards (the ongoing task) and to remember to do something when they saw a target picture (the PM task). Significant age differences were identified, but age explained only a small amount of variance. As predicted, children in the no-interruption condition performed significantly better than those who had to interrupt the ongoing activity in order to carry out the PM task. An additional finding was that no relation was detected between performance on prospective and retrospective memory tasks. Taken together, these findings provide support for current models of PM and identify ways to assist children's PM.

Gardner Murphy's Double-Aspect Psychology

The present article is a sympathetic appraisal of Gardner Murphy's (1895–1979) “biosocial” psychology. Biosocial psychology is presented not as a personality theory but as one attempt to conceptualize the respective influences of heredity and environment on behavior. Murphy's use of the term biosocial is differentiated from that of A. P. Weiss (1930) and other theorists. For Murphy, biosocial psychology referred to a double-aspect monism in the tradition of Spinoza and William James and informed by the contributions of Herbert Spencer and the emerging post-Euclidean worldview of his own era. Canalization and other tenets of biosocial psychology are outlined and related to contemporary findings. Murphy's views are distinguished from postmodern psychology, cognitive–representational theories, evolutionary psychology, and interactionism.

Adolescent development: challenges and opportunities for research, programs, and policies

The basic process of adolescent development involves changing relations between the individual and the multiple levels of the context within which the young person is embedded. Variation in the substance and timing of these relations promotes diversity in adolescence and represents sources of risk or protective factors across this life period. The key risk factors of the contemporary American adolescent period are discussed. Behavioral risks involve drug, alcohol, and substance use and abuse; unsafe sex, teenage pregnancy, and teenage parenting; school underachievement, failure, and dropout; and delinquency, crime, and violence. Poverty among youth exacerbates these risks. The features of youth programs effective in preventing the actualization of risk or in promoting positive adolescent development are discussed, as are the characteristics of public policies that may enhance the life chances of the diverse youth of America and the world.

Prospective memory: when reminders fail

A frequent assumption in the area of prospective memory is that a reminder to do an activity in the future improves the likelihood of doing the activity. The results of four experiments indicated, however, that the most general version of this assumption is incorrect. Subjects were either reminded of a prospective memory task several times during a retention interval or not reminded of the prospective memory task. The most effective reminders referred both to the prospective memory target events and to the intended activity. Reminders that referred only to the target events did not improve prospective memory (relative to a no-reminder control). Reminders that referred only to the intended activity did improve prospective memory, but not to the level of reminders that referred both to the target events and to the intended activity. Instructions to imagine oneself performing the prospective memory task did not further improve prospective memory. Neither the delay between the prospective memory instructions and the prospective memory cover task nor the delay between a reminder and a prospective memory target event significantly influenced performance. The results, which are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications, support a new theory of prospective memory and suggest surprising conditions under which reminders fail to benefit prospective memory.

A Person–Process–Context–Time Approach to Understanding Intellectual Development

We argue that scientific psychology's twin foci on biology (person) and process can benefit from a broadening. Specifically, we show that including two additional foci—context and time—can add explanatory leverage to both the design and interpretation of scientific studies. We focus on research on intellectual development to illustrate our points. First, we briefly describe each of the four factors (person, process, context, and time), and we review studies that focus on each individual factor and its role in intellectual development. Next, we review studies that focus simultaneously on multiple factors. We illustrate how multifactor approaches reveal fine-grained differentiations that are not reducible to single factors. Finally, we describe a study that considers simultaneously all four factors, and we show how omitting any one of these factors from the design and analysis changes the interpretation of the data.

Early Development of Executive Function: A Problem-Solving Framework

Executive function (EF) accounts have now been offered for several disorders with childhood onset (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, early-treated phenylketonuria), and EF has been linked to the development of numerous abilities (e.g., attention, rule use, theory of mind). However, efforts to explain behavior in terms of EF have been hampered by an inadequate characterization of EF itself. What is the function that is accomplished by EF? The present analysis attempts to ground the construct of EF in an account of problem solving and thereby to integrate temporally and functionally distinct aspects of EF within a coherent framework. According to this problem-solving framework, EF is a macroconstruct that spans 4 phases of problem solving (representation, planning, execution, and evaluation). When analyzed into subfunctions, macroconstructs such as EF permit the integration of findings from disparate content domains, which are often studied in isolation from the broader context of reasoning and action. A review of the literature on the early development of EF reveals converging evidence for domain-general changes in all aspects of EF.

The real-life/laboratory controversy as viewed from the cognitive neurobiology of animal learning and memory

Parallel to Koriat & Goldsmith's accounting of human memory, there are two distinct approaches in animal learning. Behaviorist approaches focus on quantitative aspects of conditioned response probability, whereas cognitive and ethological approaches focus on qualitative aspects of how memory is used in real life. Moreover, in animal research these distinguishable measures of memory are dissociated in experimental amnesia.

Hypothesis testing in experimental and naturalistic memory research

Koriat & Goldsmith's distinction between the correspondence and storehouse metaphors is valuable for both memory theory and methodology. It is questionable, however, whether this distinction underlies the heated debate about so called “everyday memory” research. The distinction between experimental and naturalistic methodologies better characterizes this debate. I compare these distinctions and discuss how the methodological distinction, between experimental and naturalistic designs, could give rise to different theoretical approaches.

False dichotomies and dead metaphors

Koriat & Goldsmith's thesis is provocative but has three problems: First, quantity and accuracy are not simply related, they are complementary. Second, the storehouse metaphor is not the driving force behind contemporary theories of memory and may not be viable. Third, the taxonomy is incomplete, leaving unclassified several extremely influential methods and measures, such as priming and response latency.

Operationaling “correspondence”

The research guided by the correspondence metaphor is lauded for its emphasis on functional analysis, but the term “correspondence” itself needs clarification. Of the two terms in the relationship, only one is well defined. It is suggested that behavior at acquisition needs to be analyzed and that molecular principles from the learning laboratory might be useful in doing so.

Metacognition, metaphors, and the measurement of human memory

Investigations of metacognition – and also the application of the storehouse and correspondence metaphors – seem as appropriate for laboratory research as for naturalistic research. In terms of measurement, the only quantitative difference between the “input-bound percent correct” and “output-bound percent correct” is the inclusion versus exclusion (respectively) of omission errors in the denominator of the percentages.

Driving and dish-washing: Failure of the correspondence metaphor for memory

Koriat & Goldsmith restrict their definition of memory to “being about some past event,” which causes them to ignore the most common use of memory: everyday visual-motor tasks. New techniques make it possible to study memory in the context of these natural tasks with which memory is so tightly coupled. Memory can be more fully understood in the context of these actions.

On correspondence, accuracy, and truth

Koriat & Goldsmith raise important questions about memory, but there is need for caution: first, if we define accuracy by output measures, there is a danger that a perfectly accurate memory can be nearly useless. Second, when we focus on correspondence, there is a danger that syntactic correspondence will be mistaken for historical truth.

Amnesia and metamemory demonstrate the importance of both metaphors

The correspondence metaphor is useful in developing functional models of memory. However, the storehouse metaphor is still useful in developing structural and process models of memory. Traditional research techniques explore the structure of memory; everyday techniques explore the function of memory. We illustrate this point with two examples: amnesia and metamemory. In each phenomenon, both metaphors are useful.

Accuracy and quantity are poor measures of recall and recognition

The value of accuracy and quantity as memory measures is assessed. It is argued that (1) accuracy does not measure correspondence (monitoring) because it ignores omissions and correct rejections, (2) quantity is confounded with monitoring in recall, and (3) in recognition, if targets and foils are unequal, both measures, even together, still ignore correct rejections.

Classical antecedents for modern metaphors for memory

Classical antiquity provides not just the storehouse metaphor, which postdates Plato, but also parts of the correspondence metaphor. In the fifth century B.C., Thucydides (1.22) considered the role of gist and accuracy in writing history, and Aristotle (Poetics1451b, 1460b 8–11) offered an explanation. Finally, the Greek for truth (alêtheia) means “that which is not forgotten.”

The correspondence metaphor: Prescriptive or descriptive?

Koriat & Goldsmith's abstract correspondence metaphor is unlikely to prove useful to memory science. It aims to motivate and inform the investigation of everyday memory, but that movement has prospered without it. The irrelevance of its competitor – the more concrete storehouse metaphor – as a guiding force in memory research presages a similar fate for the correspondence perspective.

The phenomenal object of memory and control processes

This commentary deals with criteria for assigning truth values to memory contents. A parallel with perception shows how truth values can be assigned by considering subjects' beliefs about the truth state of the memory content. This topic is also relevant to the study of processes of control over retrieval.

Everyday memory and activity

The target article interprets current psychological research on everyday memory in terms of a correspondence metaphor. This metaphor is based on a reduction of everyday memory to autobiographical and eyewitness memory. This commentary focuses on everyday memory as it functions in activity. Viewed from this perspective, the joining of everyday memory to a correspondence metaphor is problematic. A more natural way to frame the processes of everyday memory is in terms of context, practice, and pragmatics.

Let's forget the everyday/laboratory controversy

In contrast to its aims, Koriat & Goldsmith's article vividly demonstrates(1) the complementarity of ecological and traditional approaches and (2) the difficulty of characterising the growing diversity of memory research with a single set of distinctions. Moreover, the contrast between correspondence and storehouse metaphors is important enough to stand alone without reference to an everyday/laboratory controversy, which is neither acute nor necessary.

Correspondence conception of memory: A good match is hard to find

The distinction that Koriat & Goldsmith have drawn between laboratory and naturalistic research is largely valid, but the metaphor they have chosen to characterize the latter may not be optimal. The “correspondence” approach is vulnerable on conceptual grounds and is not applicable to significant portions of empirical research.

Functions of external cues in prospective memory

A simulation of an air traffic control task was the setting for an investigation of the functions of external cues in prospective memory. External cues can support the triggering of an action or memory for the content of the action. We focused on memory for the content, and manipulated the temporal characteristics of the external cue to disentangle two possible functions the cue can support: (1) an external cue visible during a retention interval could support rehearsal of the to-be-performed action; (2) an external cue visible at the end of a retention interval could support retrieval of the to-be-performed action. Two experiments were conducted that converge on the same conclusion: the primary function of an external cue is to support retrieval. Implications for the design of a computer interface to present prospective cues are discussed.

Priming effects in prospective memory

The objective of this study was to examine whether an increased activation of knowledge structures facilitates memory for future actions. Priming effects were manipulated by giving subjects a category fluency task for half of the target categories used in the subsequent prospective memory task. In this task, younger and older adults performed an action whenever an instance of a given semantic category occurred in the context of a free association task. The degree of retrieval support was varied by using typical and atypical category instances as targets. Although reliable priming effects were observed for both age groups, the magnitude of priming interacted with the degree of retrieval support. Older adults showed priming effects for typical targets only, whereas the opposite pattern of results was obtained for younger adults. These findings indicate that, in addition to retrieval-related factors, the operations performed at the time of planning also contribute to optimal prospective remembering.

Effect of aging on prospective and incidental memory

Three experiments were conducted to test the effect of aging on prospective and incidental memory. In the first study, 24 undergraduates (M = 19.71 years) and 17 Elderhostel participants (M = 69.06 years) were used to test three hypotheses: (1) Younger subjects will be superior to older subjects in incidental memory. (2) If older and younger subjects have access to external memory aids, older subjects will display significantly better prospective memory. (3) If these subjects are denied external aids, the younger subjects will exhibit better prospective memory. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were confirmed, but 3 was not. The advantage older subjects display when permitted use of memory aids could derive from better recall of the future task or higher motivation to complete the task once it is recalled. In the second experiment, 51 undergraduates (M = 18.71 years) and 55 older subjects (M = 71.87 years) recruited from a continuing education program were used to test the hypothesis that the advantage older subjects displayed in aided prospective memory over younger ones derives from better recall of the task. The results obtained were not consistent with this interpretation. In the third experiment, 22 undergraduates (M = 18.50 years) and 20 Elderhostel participants (M = 70.25 years) tested the hypothesis that the advantage older subjects enjoy in prospective memory derives from greater motivation to complete the task. This hypothesis was confirmed.

Forgotten variables in memory theory and research

Memory research, like other scientific research, disregards many variables in order to bring the full force of the scientific method to bear on clearly important variables. The reasons why memory research attends to certain variables and disregards others emanate largely from theoretical assumptions that distinguish memory systems from other psychological systems, and that distinguish variables intrinsic to memory from those extrinsic to memory. Nevertheless, a number of these 'forgotten' variables affect memory performance. Regardless of past practice, it is a mistake for memory research to continue to ignore relevant variables. Doing so introduces measurement error that contaminates memory performance measures, and classification error that precludes the discovery of legitimate memory variables. It is proposed here that if forgotten memory variables are controlled, manipulated, and measured more extensively, then future memory research will have greater power and memory theories will have greater validity.

Background and initial case studies into the effects of prospective memory training

Two preliminary case studies are presented introducing the technique of Prospective Memory Training (PMT) as a potential means to manage severe memory impairments. PMT involves repetitive administration of prospective memory tasks in which the patient is asked to initiate a specific action at a future designated time. Background information relevant to the concept of prospective memory is presented. Possible theoretical foundations for PMT are also discussed.