The delay period as an opportunity to think about future intentions: Effects of delay length and delay task difficulty on young adult's prospective memory performance.
The current study examined the impact of length and difficulty of the delay task on young adult's event-based prospective memory (PM). Participants engaged in either a short (2.5 min) or a long (15 min) delay that was filled with either a simple item categorization task or a difficult cognitive task. They also completed a questionnaire on whether they thought about the PM intention during the delay period and how often they thought about it. Results revealed that participants' PM was better after a difficult delay task compared to an easy delay task. Participants thought about the PM intention more often during the difficult delay task than during the easy delay task. PM performance was positively related to participants' reports of how many times they thought about their intentions. The important role of delay task difficulty in allowing or preventing individuals from refreshing their future intentions is discussed.
Department of Psychology, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, USA. caitlin.mahy@brocku.ca.
Caitlin E V
CEV
Mahy
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
Katharina
K
Schnitzspahn
University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Alexandra
A
Hering
Department of Psychology, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, USA.
Jacqueline
J
Pagobo
University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Matthias
M
Kliegel
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013850:Thinking; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult