Conceptual and perceptual processing in prospective remembering

Deborah McGann, Judi Ellis*, Alan Milne

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

McDaniel, Robinson-Riegler, and Einstein (1998) recently reported findings in support of the proposal that prospective remembering is largely conceptually driven. In each of the three experiments they reported, however, the task in which the prospective memory target was encountered at test had a predominantly conceptual focus, thereby potentially facilitating retrieval of conceptually encoded features of the studied target event. We report two experiments in which we manipulated the dimension (perceptual or conceptual) along which a target event varied between study and test while using a processing task, at both study and test, compatible with the relevant dimension of target change. When the target was encountered in a sentence validity task at study and test, and the semantic context in which a target was encountered was changed between these two occasions, prospective remembering declined (Experiment 1). A similar decline occurred, using a readability rating task, when the perceptual context (font in which the word was printed) was altered (Experiment 2). These results indicate that both perceptual and conceptual processes can support prospective remembering.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-41
Number of pages23
JournalEuropean Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2003
Externally publishedYes

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