Differential contributions of working memory and inhibitory control to prospective memory detection and retrieval

Prospective memory (PM)-remembering to carry out intended actions at the right moment - depends on executive control, but the specific contributions of working memory and inhibitory control to PM cue detection versus intention retrieval remain debated.

Eighty-four adults (44 action video game players, 40 non-players) aged 18-45 completed a within-subjects PM paradigm with separate detection and retrieval conditions, along with measures of working memory (digit span forward/backward, Corsi block), inhibitory control (Stroop interference), and nonverbal reasoning (Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices). Multiple regression and a stacked long-format model with cluster-robust standard errors tested predictor-outcome associations and their interaction with PM component.

Backward digit span (executive working memory) was a significant positive predictor of PM detection (β = 0.32, p = 0.009) but not PM retrieval; follow-up analyses confirmed the effect was carried by executive manipulation rather than verbal storage. Stroop interference was the only significant predictor of PM retrieval (β = -0.25, p = 0.042). The PM-component × working-memory interaction was significant (β = -0.34, p = 0.009), indicating that working memory was more strongly associated with detection than with retrieval, whereas the corresponding interaction for Stroop interference was not (β = -0.06, p = 0.649). Action video game experience was not associated with performance on any measure.

Working memory was selectively associated with the detection phase of PM, providing partial support for multiprocess accounts in which different executive mechanisms are differentially recruited across PM phases. The role of inhibitory control was less phase-specific. Modest action video game experience does not confer measurable PM advantages.