Task Importance And Target Context Specificity Affect The Processing Mechanism Of Prospective Memory

Prospective memory refers to the memory of events to be completed in the future,and the processing mechanism of prospective memory has always been the focus in this field.Studies have confirmed that the importance of prospective memory tasks and the specificity of the prospective memory target situation will affect the allocation of cognitive resources.Therefore,our study by manipulating task importance and the specificity of the target situation to explore the distribution of cognitive resources in the prospective memory processing,and then revealing the processing mechanism of prospective memory.The whole study was departed into three experiments,with the help of the two-task experimental paradigm of prospective memory.Experiment 1 recruit 30 graduate students,used a within-subjects design(Importance of prospective memory task:no prospective memory task/unimportant/important),to investigate that how the importance of prospective memory task will influence the distribution of cognitive resources in prospective memory processing;Experiment 2 recruit 30 graduate students,used a within-subjects design(Specificity of target situation:no prospective memory task/non-specific/low specific/high specific),to investigate that how the specificity of target situation will influence the distribution of cognitive resources in prospective memory processing;Experiment 3 recruit 30 graduate students,used a within-subjects design of 2(Importance of prospective memory task:important/unimportant)*2(Specificity of target situation:low specific/high specific),to investigate the changes in cognitive resource allocation when the two aspects work together.The dependent variables were the response time and accuracy of background task and prospective memory task.Based on the above research,we can investigate the processing mechanism of prospective memory.The results showed:(1)The main effect of the importance of prospective memory task in the background task reaction time was obvious.And the reaction time of background task was significantly higher when the importance of prospective memory task was emphasized than not emphasized.(2)The main effect of the specificity of target situation in the background task reaction time was obvious.The reaction time of background task in high specific(the situation is predictable)was significantly higher than non-specific and low specific(the situation is not predictable).Furthermore,under high specific,the reaction time of background tasks related to prospective memory tasks was significantly higher than background tasks unrelated to prospective memory tasks.(3)The intereaction between the importance of prospective memory task and the specificity of target situation in the background task reaction time was obvious.Under high specific conditions,as the importance of prospective memory task increases,the reaction time of background tasks related to prospective memory tasks got higher,at the same times,the reaction time of background tasks unrelated to prospective memory tasks got lower.Under low specific conditions,the reaction time of background tasks was not affected by the importance of the prospective memory task.Conclusions:(1)The more important a prospective memory task,the more cognitive resources individuals allocate to it.(2)When the situation is predictable,specificity of target situation can motivate individuals to allocate cognitive resources dynamically.(3)When the situation is predictable,emphasizing the importance of prospective memory task will promote the impact of the specificity of target situation on the dynamic allocation of cognitive resources.