M. Kliegel et al., Varying the importance of a prospective memory task: Differential effects across time- and event-based prospective memory, MEMORY, 9(1), 2001, pp. 1-11
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.