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I could do it now, but I'd rather (forget to) do it later: examining links between procrastination and prospective
Sascha Zuber1,2,3, Nicola Ballhausen4,5, Maximilian Haas4,6
1Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability (CIGEV), University of Geneva, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 28, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland. Sascha.Zuber@unige.ch.
Abstract:
Prospective memory (PM) represents the ability to remember to perform planned actions after a certain delay. As previous studies suggest that even brief task-delays can negatively affect PM performance, the current study set out to examine whether procrastination (intentionally delaying task execution despite possible negative consequences) may represent a factor contributing to PM failures. Specifically, we assessed procrastination (via a standardized questionnaire as well as an objective behavioral measure) and PM failures (via a naturalistic PM task) in 92 young adults. Results show that participants' self-reports as well as their actual procrastination behavior predicted the number of PM failures, corroborating the impact of procrastination on PM. Subsequent cluster analyses suggest three distinct procrastination profiles (non-procrastinators, conscious procrastinators and unconscious procrastinators), providing new conceptual insights into different mechanisms of how procrastinating may lead to forgetting to perform planned tasks.
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