Conceptual and perceptual processes in prospective remembering: differential influence of attentional resources.

Full Abstract

Does prospective remembering rely on strategic, attentionally demanding processes? We report three experiments suggesting that the extent to which attentional processes are required varies according to the character of ongoing task processing. Study-test changes in the semantic context of targets had a negative effect on prospective memory performance when participants were engaged in a conceptually focused (sentence verification) task (Experiment 1). Similarly, prospective remembering was lower following study-test changes in perceptual format (font) in the context of a perceptually focused (readability rating) ongoing task (Experiment 2). However, although dividing attention at retrieval had a negative effect during the performance of an ongoing conceptual task (Experiments 1 and 3), it had no effect during an ongoing perceptual task (Experiments 2 and 3). Thus, both perceptual and conceptual process are implicated in prospective remembering, but the processing focus of the task in which remembering should occur may mediate the requirement for strategic processes. These findings suggest that more than one retrieval route is available for prospective remembering and that selection of the route depends on the nature of the task and the processing that occurs at encoding and retrieval.

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Author information

Author/s: McGann, Deborah (D); Ellis, Judi A (JA); Milne, Alan (A);

Affiliation: University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, England. deborah.mcgann(-atsign-)unn.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Oct; vol 30 (issue 7) : pp 1021-32

Dates: Created 2002/12/31; Completed 2003/02/12; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12507367, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attention
Humans
Memory

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