Internalizing versus externalizing control: different ways to perform a time-based prospective memory task.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Time-based prospective memory (PM) involves remembering to perform an action at a future time.
• PM tasks can impose cognitive costs on ongoing tasks due to the need for internal control and timing estimations.
• External cues like clock checking or reminders can mitigate these costs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how individuals externalize and internalize control for time-based PM tasks.
• To examine the impact of clock checking and PM reminders on cognitive costs and performance.
• To understand the interplay between internal and external control mechanisms in PM.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted with participants performing a lexical decision task.
• PM conditions required a time-based response after 11 minutes, with manipulations of clock checking encouragement and reminder availability.
• Control groups performed only the lexical decision task.

Main Results:

• No significant costs were observed when clock checking was permitted.
• Discouraging clock checking led to significant costs and reduced clock checking behavior.
• PM reminders increased clock checking and improved PM accuracy, especially when expected.

Conclusions:

• Externalizing control through practiced behaviors like clock checking reduces the internal cognitive load for time-based PM.
• The need for internal control in PM can be effectively transferred to external cues.
• Clock checking serves as a crucial external mechanism for maintaining prospective memory intentions.