The properties of retention intervals and their affect on retaining prospective memories

Five experiments were conducted to explore how the character of the retenti on interval affected event-based prospective memory. According to the canon s of retrospective memory, prospective performance should have been worse w ith increasing delays between intention formation and the time it was appro priate to complete an action. That result did not occur. Rather, prospectiv e memory was better with increasing retention intervals in Experiments 1A, 1B, and 3. In manipulating the nature of the retention interval, the author s found that there were independent contributions of retention interval len gth and the number of intervening activities, with more activities leading to better prospective memory (Experiments 2 and 3). The identical retention intervals did not improve retrospective memory in Experiment 4. Theoretica l explanations for these dissociations between prospective and retrospectiv e memory are considered.