Prospective Memory Retrieval Revisited

Prospective memory is the ability we use to formulate intentions, to make plans and promises, and to retain and execute them at the appropriate place or time. Like retrospective memory, prospective memory serves many different functions (e.g., short-term, long-term). This chapter deals with one of them—with episodic prospective memory, the function which is analogous to episodic retrospective memory. An analysis of what is required for the context-appropriate successful retrieval of a previously formed plan reveals three basic steps or stages: cue noticing, cue identification or singularization, and plan recollection. In separate sections of the chapter, I discuss the cognitive processes that appear to mediate each of these stages. I use the well-entrenched theoretical prospective memory models by Craik (1986) and by Einstein and McDaniel (1996) as foils. They also provide a convenient platform for differentiating new theoretical assumptions from those that define the field’s current understanding of the processes involved in the context-appropriate recollection of previously formed plans. In support of the new assumptions introduced here, the chapter also reports the results of several recent empirical investigations.