Cognitive Processes of Time-Based Prospective Memory

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to

carry out a planned action at a specific moment in the future, which is often defined

time-based, such as taking a pizza out of the oven after 10 minutes. Research

suggests that both general cognitive abilities and task-specific strategies

contribute to time-based PM performance. I will present data from three

experiments examining how working memory (WM) processes interact with

task-specific strategies in PM. In Experiment 1, we found that higher WM load

increased the influence of time monitoring on PM performance. Experiment 2

showed that WM updating, in addition to time monitoring, was linked to PM

performance. In Experiment 3, higher updating demands impaired PM performance,

but this effect disappeared after accounting for time monitoring. These

findings highlight the complex relationship between cognitive abilities and

task-specific strategies in time-based PM.