Socially situated prospective memory: A first look

Prospective memory is memory for performing intended actions. Unlike its long-studied retrospective counterpart, thorough investigations of prospective memory have spanned only the last three decades. A review of the prospective memory literature is presented here, beginning with earliest approaches and ending with the current state of the field. Though the majority of research has been solely cognitive, some social psychological approaches have been offered recently and these are surveyed as well. Next, a review of retrospective and transactive remembering in groups and dyads is presented. The field of transactive memory is unique in that it socially situates a cognitive and often “inside-the-head” process. Regrettably, there is virtually no research socially situating prospective memory, particularly in a laboratory setting. Given that prospective remembering is a requirement in group and team task environments, successful functioning in these environments depends upon the understanding of prospective memory outside the head. Here, two studies offer preliminary methodological approaches to this area. The first compared the prospective remembering of participants working alone while engaged in a cognitively demanding task to that of three-person groups. Individuals and groups performed comparably with regard to prospective remembering and the pattern of errors committed. The second study contrasted the prospective remembering of individuals with that of dyads while also incorporating the basic assumptions of a traditional (retrospective) transactive memory system. Dyad members completed a set of embedded prospective memory tasks and were (1) trained together or apart and (2) assigned or unassigned specific responsibilities. Some but not all of the features of traditional transactive remembering were observed – specifically, training together rather than apart was critical to improved performance, while the effect of expertise ran counter to past research. Though dyads trained together outperformed lone individuals, they did not overtake artificial pairs of individuals. Discussion of the relationship between prospective and retrospective memory in socially situated environments is offered, as are recommendations for improved methodology within this field