Remembering to execute a goal: sleep on it!
Remembering to execute deferred goals (prospective memory) is a ubiquitous memory challenge, and one that is often not successfully accomplished. Could sleeping after goal encoding promote later execution? We evaluated this possibility by instructing participants to execute a prospective memory goal after a short delay (20 min), a 12-hr wake delay, or a 12-hr sleep delay. Goal execution declined after the 12-hr wake delay relative to the short delay. In contrast, goal execution was relatively preserved after the 12-hr sleep delay relative to the short delay. The sleep-enhanced goal execution was not accompanied by a decline in performance of an ongoing task in which the prospective memory goal was embedded, which suggests that the effect was not a consequence of attentional resources being reallocated from the ongoing task to the prospective memory goal. Our results suggest that consolidation processes active during sleep increase the probability that a goal will be spontaneously retrieved and executed.
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St.Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA. mscullin@wustl.edu
Michael K
MK
Scullin
Mark A
MA
McDaniel
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors