How episodic future thinking enhances prospective memory in college students

Episodic future thinking can be described as mentally simulating events that one is likely to experience personally in the future, a cognitive function shown to facilitate prospective memory. The present study investigated the mechanism underlying the improvement of prospective memory by episodic future thinking among college students aged 21-27 years.

Experiment 1 employed a 2 (group: experimental, control) × 2 (ongoing task difficulty: low, high) between-subjects design to quantify the impact of episodic future thinking on prospective memory under conditions of varying attentional load. To investigate whether the facilitative effect of episodic future thinking would be eliminated in a single-cue condition, Experiment 2 reduced the number of cues used in the low-difficulty condition of Experiment 1.

The results demonstrated that prospective memory accuracy in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group under both low and high ongoing task difficulty conditions, and the prospective component was higher in the experimental group under low ongoing task difficulty. However, no difference was found between groups under the single-cue condition.

These findings suggest that the positive role of episodic future thinking on prospective memory is not dependent on ongoing task difficulty, but is affected by the number of cues. Episodic future thinking primarily improves prospective memory task capability by strengthening prospective component in low ongoing task difficulty. The results of this study not only address the controversy over existing theories but also identify the boundary conditions under which episodic future thinking promotes prospective memory, providing effective interventions for improving the social cognitive abilities of college students in the future.