Prospective memory skill

Abstract

Two experiments examined the likelihood of remembering each of 24 different kinds of appointments (which differed from one another in importance, retention interval, amount of recurrence, and precision with which the appointment is to be met) as a function of their frequency of occurrence. In Experiment 1, subjects rated how often they experienced and forgot to meet the different kinds of appointments. In Experiment 2, subjects kept a diary over a 3-week period of their appointments and which ones they forgot to meet. In both experiments, we found a strong positive correlation, across the different kinds of appointments, between the likelihood of remembering to meet a certain kind of appointment and the frequency of having such appointments. © 1991, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.