The Influence Of Target Valence And Cognitive Load On Prospective Memory And Its Components

Prospective memory(PM)refers to the ability to execute a planned event or activity at an appropriate time or situation in the future.It contains two components: prospective component and retrospective component.The prospective component refers to the memory of “when or under what circumstances the planned event need to be performed”,and it mainly involves the identification of target cues.The retrospective component refers to the memory of “intentional content of the planned event”,and it mainly involves the retrieval of the execution intention.Target cues are important influencing factors of prospective memory.The relationship between those two is the focus of cognitive psychology research.What influence will target valence have on prospective memory and its two components?Recent studies have not reached a consensus conclusion.Integrating cognitive loads from various sources into research is conductive to figure out that how process of prospective memory under different emotional target conditions is affected by the cognitive load from different sources.And the discussion of the influence mechanism of prospective memory can provide an effective method for improving prospective memory.Our study attempts to explore how target valence affect prospective memory and its components.Will prospective memory process of emotional target be affected by the cognitive load from different sources?And what factors respectively are two components susceptible to affect?Therefore,this study aims to explore systematically the effects of cognitive loads different sources and target valence on prospective memory and its components through three experiments.Experiment 1 used a 2(ongoing task load: low or high)×3(target valence: negative,neutral or positive)mixed experimental design to explore the effects of target valence and ongoing task load on prospective memory and its components.Experiment 2 used a 2(prospective load: low or high)× 3(target valence: negative,neutral or positive)mixed experimental design to explore the effects of target valence and prospective load on prospective memory and its components.Experiment 3 used a 2(retrospective load: low or high)× 3(target valence: negative,neutral or positive)mixed experimental design to explore the effects of target valence and retrospective load on prospective memory and its components.This study drew the following conclusions:(1)The processing of neutral targets relied on top-down monitoring processing.The ongoing task load had positive effects on the prospective memory and its prospective component of neutral targets;while the prospective load and the retrospective load had negative influences.(2)The processing of positive targets relied on top-down monitoring processing.The prospective load impaired the identification of the prospective component,and the retrospective load weakened the advantages of positive targets on the retrospective component.(3)The processing of negative targets relied on bottom-up automatic processing.The prospective memory of negative targets was only affected by the retrospective load,but the promoting influence of negative targets on the prospective component was free from the influence of cognitive loads.(4)The processing mechanism of prospective memory conformed to the dynamic multiple processing theory,and the extent to which the processing of prospective memory depended on automatic processing or monitoring processing was regulated by target valence.