Prospective Memory in Workplace and Everyday Situations

Forgetting to perform intended actions can have major consequences, including loss of life in some situations. Laboratory research on prospective memory—remembering (and sometimes forgetting) to perform deferred intentions—is growing rapidly, thanks to new laboratory paradigms that are being used to uncover underlying cognitive mechanisms. Everyday situations and workplace situations in fields such as aviation and medicine, which have been studied less extensively, reveal aspects of prospective remembering that have both practical and theoretical implications, which are discussed here. Several types of situations in which individuals are vulnerable to forgetting intentions, but which have not been studied extensively in laboratory research, are described, and ways to reduce vulnerability to forgetting are suggested.