Varying the importance of a prospective memory task: Differential effects across time- and event-based prospective memory

Only few studies have addressed the issue of task importance in prospective memory. Most of them, but not all, have shown that perceived task importan ce does improve prospective memory performance. However, there is little un derstanding of (1) the conditions under which importance of the prospective memory task makes a difference in performance and (2) the mechanisms by wh ich perceived task importance has an effect on prospective memory performan ce. The present study reports two experiments that manipulate task importan ce in a time-based and an event-based prospective memory paradigm. Results show that importance has an effect on the time-based but not on the event-b ased task. Further analyses of the performance in the cover tasks as well a s the monitoring behaviour indicate that importance improves prospective me mory to the degree the task requires the strategic allocation of attentiona l resources.