Strategic and automatic processes in prospective memory retrieval: A multiprocess framework

Prospective memory situations involve forming intentions and then realizing those intentions at some appropriate time in the future. An interesting fe ature of most prospective remembering is that recollection of the intended action occurs without an explicit request to attempt retrieval, and we pres ent two views on how this type of remembering can be accomplished. One coul d strategically monitor the environment for the presence of the target even t, or one could rely on anticipated environmental conditions more or less a utomatically reinstating the intended action. We present data supporting bo th views and argue that people use multiple approaches for solving the prob lem of retrieving an intention (prospective memory) after a delay. Moreover , we suggest that the extent to which prospective remembering is supported by relatively automatic processes (versus strategic resource-demanding moni toring) and the probability with which prospective memory is likely to be s uccessful when relying on automatic processes varies as a function of the c haracteristics of the prospective memory task, target cue, ongoing task. an d individual. We argue that the: complexity of the empirical findings can b est be understood by appealing to this multiprocess view of prospective mem ory. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.