(DOWNLOAD) "Implementation Intentions and Generative Strategies in Prospective Memory Retrieval (Report)" by North American Journal of Psychology # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Implementation Intentions and Generative Strategies in Prospective Memory Retrieval (Report)
- Author : North American Journal of Psychology
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 228 KB
Description
Many of the tasks in our daily lives are prospective memory (PM) tasks. In a PM task, we form an intention to be completed later. Examples of PM tasks would be remembering to give a message to a friend, or remembering to take a dose of medication after a certain interval of time. The key in a PM task is that the intended action is delayed for either a specific event (giving the message when you see the friend), or after a set amount of elapsed time (taking the medication after so many hours). In the PM literature, one specific type of event-based PM task is further described as focal (Einstein et al., 2005). If the processing required to perform the ongoing task completely overlaps with the processing required to process the PM target, the PM task is described as focal (see Einstein et al., 2005). For example, in the context of a "choose the best synonym" task, a focal PM task would be to ask participants to press a certain key whenever they encounter a specific word. Processing words and their semantic meanings in the service of the ongoing task would completely overlap with the processing necessary to notice the PM target. In contrast, a non-focal PM task in the context of a "choose the best synonym" task would be to ask participants to press a certain key whenever they encounter a specific syllable. This would be non-focal because in order to perform the synonym task successfully, people are likely processing each word in terms of a whole semantic unit, rather than accessing the information of its component syllables. Here, the processing required to perform the ongoing task does not overlap with the processing required to process the PM target. Thus, focality of a PM task considers the relationship between ongoing task processing and PM target processing. Focal, event-based PM (e.g., Einstein et al., 2005; McDaniel, Guynn, Einstein, & Breneiser, 2004) is the focus of the current study. Gollwitzer and colleagues (Cohen & Gollwitzer, 2007; Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999; Gollwitzer & Shaal, 1998) have examined goal pursuit and goal directed behavior, especially the issue of initiating goal-directed actions. These implementation intentions can be described as condition-action statements which are structured as, "When I am in X situation, I intend to perform action Y" (Gollwitzer, 1993). Thus, the expected future condition is linked to a specific action (Gollwitzer, 1993). Implementation intentions are assumed to differ from mere goal intentions ("I intend to reach goal Y") in that they "promote the initiation of goal-directed behaviors" toward achieving the goal (Gollwitzer, 1993, p. 187). Implementation intentions have significantly improved compliance in many studies and across a wide variety of settings involving goal-directed behavior, including attending cervical cancer screenings (Sheeran & Orbell, 2000), and decreasing participants' reports of dietary fat intake (Armitage, 2004).