Verified by Prospective Memory
Prospective memory enables a person to recall an intention to do something. In that sense, while it retains information from the past, prospective memory is more future-oriented than other categories of memory.
Prospective memory, which compiles one's intentions to act in a certain way in the future, has been described as “remembering to remember.” The sorts of memories that fit into this category allow people to accomplish the tasks that they want to do or are supposed to do—but can’t do immediately.
Prospective memory is at work when one remembers to call a friend at a specific time, take a prescribed medication every night, buy a gift for a family member’s birthday, run errands after work, vote on Election Day, and any number of things that people form an intention to do at a later point.
Without the ability to remember intentions, it would be much more challenging for people to stick to plans and meet obligations. The instances in which prospective memory falls short—when people forget to do the things they are supposed to do until it’s too late, resulting in disappointment or guilt—highlight why it is invaluable when it does work.
Like episodic memory and personal semantic memories such as facts about one’s life, prospective memory is self-focused—but it is also future focused and functional. Prospective memory has been compared to a memory-related concept called “episodic future thought,” or envisioning a future personal experience based in part on memories of the past.
At the center of prospective memory is an intention: to go somewhere at a certain time, to say something to a specific person, or to take any other course of action. To fulfill that intention, one may engage in periodic monitoring—for example, mentally checking on a list of errands throughout the weekend and considering whether there is time in the next hour to do one or two. But people also retrieve prospective memories spontaneously, as when someone sees a neighbor on the street and suddenly remembers wanting to ask her a question.
The monitoring of prospective memory intentions is supported by the anterior prefrontal cortex, research suggests. The spontaneous recollection of these intentions appears to involve the medial temporal lobe, which includes the hippocampus.
A number of factors can interfere with retrieving prospective memories and acting on them. These may include setting intentions that are too vague (such as “exercise today,” as opposed to “go for a jog immediately after work is over at 6 p.m.”); insufficient use of reminders (such as notes or calendar alerts) when juggling many tasks; or interruptions that interfere with carrying out an act when an intention is recalled.
Research in which people are tasked with remembering to do something in a lab has suggested a tendency for younger people to perform better. Older adults' likelihood of carrying out an intended act may be particularly affected if the moment of remembering is followed by a temporary delay in their ability to act (because of a distraction, for example). In naturalistic tests of prospective memory, however, older and younger adults often show comparable ability, possibly because of the use of reminders and other adaptations.
