PROSPECTIVE MEMORY - CONDITIONS OF THE REALIZATION OF DELAYED EVENT-BASED INTENTIONS

Conditions of the accomplishment of delayed event-based intentions are investigated in two short-time laboratory studies and a long-time fie ld study (90 minutes; 14 weeks respectively) from an action-theory poi nt of view. Experiment 2, based on a pilot-study, applied a reading pa radigm: Two target tasks of different complexity are to be accomplishe d whenever the well-encoded stimulus-words (cues) are occuring; the de manded depth of processing of two versions of the intervening reading task is the second variable. In experiment 3 the subjects had to recor d date, time, and the statement at the moment whenever a stimulus word of the list handed over occured within the 14-week lecturing period; frequency, number of different cues, and salience are varied. Not all cues, which are subsequently recalled, initiated the demanded task acc omplishment. The accomplishment of delayed intentions is higher with t he intervening task of more intensive (''deeper'') processing demands than with the task with lower ones; the cues here are keys to the comp rehension of the intervening text. If the target task needs informatio n from the intervening one, requiring deeper processing, the accomplis hment of this target task is better. With the long-time task delay acc omplishment is better with the more frequent (familiar) and salient cu es and with a smaller number of different ones. The decrease of accomp lishment with time is smaller with higher task frequency. Inspire of t he cues presented, subjects produced self-initiated memory aids alread y in taking over (encoding) the tasks. The results prove: Exceeding th e characteristics of the cues those of the intervening tasks, the targ et tasks, and their interaction determine the accomplishment of delaye d intentions.