The effect of response inhibition on the aftereffects of completed prospective memory

The aftereffects of completed prospective memory (PM) refer to the phenomenon that, after PM task completion, it interferes with the subsequent task or results in the repetition of the previous intended behavior. Inhibition processing and monitoring processing are two important theoretical perspectives to explain the emergence of the aftereffects of PM. The present study aimed at exploring the processing mechanisms of PM aftereffects. In experiment 1, the response delay time was manipulated during the intention response to assess the role of response inhibition in the aftereffects of PM. In experiment 2, the convenience of response was manipulated by changing different response keys during task response phase, to further examine the effect of response inhibition. The results of Experiment 1 showed that the response speed of the ongoing tasks in the experimental group was slower than that in the control group under the non-delay condition. The results of Experiment 2 also showed that both convenient response group and inconvenient response group had slower response speed than control group. The results of Experiment 1 showed that more commission errors were generated under the delay condition. The results of the ongoing tasks indicate that PM aftereffects involve a controlled processing in both experiments. The results of commission errors in Experiment 1 indicate that the controlled processing involved in PM aftereffects is inhibition rather than monitoring, which supports the inhibition view.