Implementation intentions and facilitation of prospective memory

Forming detailed implementation intentions for a future behavior can increa se the probability that the behavior is actually completed. We investigated whether this intention effect could be used to improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an implementation int ention were more than twice as likely to self-initiate the intended behavio r (writing down the day of the week on every sheet of paper received during the experiment) compared with participants who either were merely instruct ed to do so or actively rehearsed the instruction, Forming an implementatio n intention, however did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that detailed implementation intentio ns facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and requir e self-initiation.