title: Performance predictions affect attentional processes of event-based prospective memory.
abstract: To investigate whether making performance predictions affects prospective memory (PM) processing, we asked one group of participants to predict their performance in a PM task embedded in an ongoing task and compared their performance with a control group that made no predictions. A third group gave not only PM predictions but also ongoing-task predictions. Exclusive PM predictions resulted in slower ongoing-task responding both in a nonfocal (Experiment 1) and in a focal (Experiment 2) PM task. Only in the nonfocal task was the additional slowing accompanied by improved PM performance. Even in the nonfocal task, however, was the correlation between ongoing-task speed and PM performance reduced after predictions, suggesting that the slowing was not completely functional for PM. Prediction-induced changes could be avoided by asking participants to additionally predict their performance in the ongoing task. In sum, the present findings substantiate a role of metamemory for attention-allocation strategies of PM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Schloss, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany. Electronic address: rummel@uni-mannheim.de.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rummel
authors.forename: Beatrice G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Kuhlmann
authors.forename: Dayna R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Touron
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011897:Random Allocation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Metamemory; Performance predictions; Prospective memory; Reactive effects