This project is examining the relationship between prospective memory and working memory, with a particular focus on whether both rely on shared cognitive resources. Using a dual-task paradigm, participants complete a colour-memory task under different working-memory load conditions while also performing a prospective-memory task. The project uses behavioural data to test whether increasing working-memory demands affects prospective-memory performance and ongoing-task costs, thereby providing insight into how future intentions are maintained and executed under cognitive load.
The relationship between prospective memory and working memory is being investigated, with a particular focus on whether both functions rely on shared cognitive resources. To examine this question, a dual-task paradigm is being used in which participants complete an ongoing colour-memory task while also maintaining a prospective-memory intention. In the ongoing task, coloured objects are encoded and later reproduced using a colour wheel, allowing performance to be measured continuously as the deviation between the correct and reported colour. At the same time, a prospective-memory task is embedded in the paradigm (after a baseline), requiring participants to respond differently to predefined cue categories.
Working-memory load is being manipulated across sessions by varying the number of items that must be maintained within a trial. Participants therefore complete the task under low, medium, and high load conditions, which makes it possible to assess how increasing memory demands affect both ongoing-task and prospective-memory performance. The paradigm further includes baseline blocks without the prospective-memory task and prospective-memory blocks with the secondary intention, allowing the costs of maintaining and executing future intentions to be examined directly.
It is expected that ongoing-task performance will decline in the prospective-memory condition relative to baseline, reflecting classic cost effects. It is further predicted that working-memory performance will worsen as load increases, thereby confirming the effectiveness of the load manipulation. Most importantly, it is expected that the effect of the prospective-memory task will vary as a function of working-memory load. Such an interaction would support the assumption that prospective memory and working memory draw on shared limited resources, particularly when cognitive demands become high.
