title: Prospective memory, personality, and individual differences.
abstract: A number of studies investigating the relationship between personality and prospective memory (ProM) have appeared during the last decade. However, a review of these studies reveals little consistency in their findings and conclusions. To clarify the relationship between ProM and personality, we conducted two studies: a meta-analysis of prior research investigating the relationships between ProM and personality, and a study with 378 participants examining the relationships between ProM, personality, verbal intelligence, and retrospective memory. Our review of prior research revealed great variability in the measures used to assess ProM, and in the methodological quality of prior research; these two factors may partially explain inconsistent findings in the literature. Overall, the meta-analysis revealed very weak correlations (rs ranging from 0.09 to 0.10) between ProM and three of the Big Five factors: Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. Our experimental study showed that ProM performance was related to individual differences such as verbal intelligence as well as to personality factors and that the relationship between ProM and personality factors depends on the ProM subdomain. In combination, the two studies suggest that ProM performance is relatively weakly related to personality factors and more strongly related to individual differences in cognitive factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Mount Royal University Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Bob
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Uttl
authors.forename: Carmela A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wong Gonzalez
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McDouall
authors.forename: Carrie A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Leonard
keywords: big five; individual differences; meta-analysis; personality; prospective memory; retrospective memory; verbal intelligence