The activation of unrelated and canceled intentions

The intention superiority effect is the finding that intentions to perform an activity are stored in a heightened state of activation. The effect has also been generalized to the finding that once an intention is fulfilled, i t is inhibited relative to more neutral material about which no intentional ity has been formed. In two experiments, we tested some ecological and natu rally occurring situations taken from the literature on prospective memory and demonstrated that they have consistent consequences for the activation level of an intention. In Experiment I, a constellation of unrelated activi ties displayed heightened activation prior to completion and displayed inhi bition after completion. In Experiment 2, canceling the intention resulted in inhibition just as completing the intention does in this paradigm. The r esults are discussed in terms of their practical and theoretical importance to theories of prospective memory.