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What can the diffusion model tell us about prospective memory?
Sebastian S Horn1, Ute J Bayen, Rebekah E Smith
1Institut fur Experimentelle Psychologie, Heinrich-heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany. s.horn@uni-duesseldorf.de
Summary
Cognitive process models like the diffusion model help understand prospective memory (PM) costs. This study found criterion shifts are important but don't fully explain reaction time costs in PM tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Human memory research
Background:
- Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks can incur costs on ongoing task performance.
- Standard analyses of reaction time and accuracy can be misleading due to speed-accuracy trade-offs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine cost and interference effects in event-based prospective memory using Ratcliff's diffusion model.
- To investigate the role of criterion shifts in ongoing task performance when a PM task is introduced.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of performance in an ongoing lexical-decision task.
- Application of Ratcliff's diffusion model to account for both reaction time and accuracy.
- Examination of parameter changes, including criterion shifts.
Main Results:
- The diffusion model provides a comprehensive analysis of performance, accounting for both speed and accuracy.
- Criterion shifts were found to play a significant role when a PM task was added to the ongoing task.
- Criterion shifts did not entirely account for the observed reaction time costs.
Conclusions:
- The diffusion model offers a methodological improvement for analyzing prospective memory costs.
- Criterion shifts are a key factor in understanding PM interference, but other mechanisms also contribute to performance costs.
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