Experimental Research On The Effect And Its Mechanism Of The Depressive State On Prospective Memory

Prospective memory，in contrast to retrospective memory，which refers to rememberingto carry out an intended action at the appropriate time in the future. With the development ofthe study of prospective memory，the researches about the emotional effects on it are alsoincreasing day by day. As a very common and widespread influenced affection，the effect ofdepression on prospective memory has attracted the attention of many researchers. Byreviewing the previous papers，we found that the results of former studies have done ondepression influences on prospective memory are inconsistent.The main purpose of this article is to explore the effects of depressive state onprospective memory. Through reviewing the previous papers，in addition，there are twotheories which explain the impacts of depression on memory：schema theory and resourceallocation theory. Thus，we investigate the mechanisms of depressive state on prospectivememory from the perspectives of schema theory and resource allocation theory. The resultsindicated the following conclusions：1、There are no significant differences between the depressed individuals’ subjectiveevaluation of prospective memory and normal individuals’；2、In general，the depressive state will affect the performance of the prospective memoryand the prospective memory scores of the depressed individuals were significantly lower thannormal individuals；3、There are no significant differences of the reaction time to the words of differentemotional colors between depressed individuals and normal individuals. However，considering the correct rates to the words of different emotional colors，the performance of allthe participants on positive words significantly worse than on negative words；4、Depressive state will effect the performance of the prospective memory. Specifically，this damage will be reflected in the prospective task which requires cognitive resources；5、We can improve the performance of the prospective memory in depressed individualsby enhancing the importance of the prospective task. Moreover，this improvement will notimpair the ongoing tasks.