Human Systems Integration Division @ NASA Ames

Two experiments examined whether prospective memory performance is
influenced by contextual cues. In our automatic activation model, any
information available at encoding and retrieval should aid recall of the
prospective task. The first experiment demonstrated an effect of the ongoing
task context; performance was better when information about the ongoing task
present at retrieval was available at encoding. Performance was also
improved by a strong association between the prospective memory target as it
was presented at retrieval and the intention as it was encoded. Experiment 2
demonstrated boundary conditions of the ongoing task context effect, which
implicate the association between the ongoing and prospective tasks formed
at encoding as the source of the context effect. The results of this study
are consistent with predictions based on automatic activation of intentions.