Target preexposure eliminates the effect of distraction on event-based prospective memory

Prospective memory is critical to everyday functioning and can be vulnerable to distraction. We conducted an experiment to explore whether we could buffer prospective memory against distraction. For half the participants, we preexposed stimuli that were later designated as prospective memory targets. Then, all participants performed an ongoing task (in which the prospective memory task was embedded) under standard and high attentional demand (i.e., under full and divided attention). Target preexposure improved prospective memory and eliminated the significant divided attention effect. Thus, target preexposure seems to buffer prospective memory against the disruptive effect of dividing attention. Moreover, target preexposure seemed to help participants to respond with the correct intended action. This result implies that preexposure to the target stimuli facilitated the encoding of an association between the target stimuli and the intended action, perhaps promoting relatively more reflexive retrieval and thereby buffering prospective memory against distraction.