Future intentions in context: the role of predictable and unpredictable information in prospective memory

Traditionally, prospective memory (PM) is studied using two separate experimental paradigms: the time-based and event-based prospective memory tasks. The present study was carried out on a population of healthy young adults (age range: 18-35) and aimed to investigate whether strategic monitoring between these two paradigms can be comparable when the PM cue in event-based PM is supported by contextual information regarding the PM cue occurrence. Furthermore, we manipulated the predictability of contextual information (predictable vs unpredictable) to investigate whether contextual predictability is used strategically in an EBPM paradigm, similarly to what is normally observed in a TBPM paradigm. The hypothesis proposed that such behavior should be observed in the predictable condition and reduce the PM cost on the OT while improving the PM response accuracy. The results indicate that contextual information is used in the same fashion independently from its predictability and, while it improves the PM accuracy, it also entails a greater PM cost on the OT.