Prospective Memory: An Overview and Synthesis of an Emerging Field

While there are many books on retrospective memory, or remembering past events, Prospective Memory: An Overview and Synthesis of an Emerging Field is the first authored text to provide a straightforward and integrated foundation to the scientific study of memory for actions to be performed in the future. Authors Mark A. McDaniel and Gilles O. Einstein present an accessible overview and synthesis of the theoretical and empirical work in this emerging field.

Key Features:

• Focuses on students rather than researchers: While there are many edited works on prospective memory, this is the first authored text written in an accessible style geared toward students.
• Provides a general approach for the controlled, laboratory study of prospective memory: The authors place issues and research on prospective memory within the context of general contemporary themes in psychology, such as the issue of the degree to which human behavior is mediated by controlled versus automatic processes.
• Investigates the cognitive processes that underlie prospective remembering: Examples are provided of event-based, time-based, and activity-based prospective memory tasks while subjects are engaged in ongoing activities to parallel day-to-day life.
• Suggests fruitful directions for further advancement: In addition to integrating what is now a fairly loosely connected theoretical and empirical field, this book goes beyond current work to encourage new theoretical insights.

Intended Audience:

This relatively brief book is an excellent supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Memory, Human Memory, and Learning & Memory in the departments of psychology and cognitive science.

Mark A. McDaniel (Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1980) is a Professor of Psychology at Washington University. He conducts research on human learning and memory and particularly on prospective memory and memory and aging. One unifying theme in his research is the investigation of factors and processes that lead to memory and learning failures. McDaniel has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and edited books and is a leader in the field of prospective memory, with over two million dollars in grant support from NIH and NASA for memory and cognition research. He is a Fellow of Divisions 3 (Experimental Psychology) and 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association, a member of the Scientific and Program Committee for the Second and Third European Workshops on Imagery and Cognition, the past Associate Editor for two memory journals, including Associate Editor for five years for the flagship journal in memory, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, and currently is an Action Editor for Cognitive Psychology. He is a past President of the Rocky Mountain Psychology Association and is invited to talk on memory throughout the world, both to scientific audiences and to lay audiences of senior groups.

Gilles O. Einstein (Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1977) is Professor and Chair of Psychology at Furman University. His research specialty is memory and aging, specifically aging and prospective memory, the roles of distinctive information and organization in memory, and mnemonic devices. He is a Fellow in Divisions 3 (Experimental Psychology) and 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association and also a member of the American Psychological Society and the Psychonomic Society. Einstein has over 65 published articles, book chapters, and edited books and, along with Mark McDaniel, is considered a leader in the field of prospective memory. He provides reviews for many journals on research in memory and is a past member of the editorial boards of two leading journals in memory. In addition to his reputation as a researcher, he has been recognized for his excellence in teaching with the Meritorious Teaching Award at Furman University, where nearly all of his research is done in collaboration with undergraduate students. (His enthusiasm for his work with students may be seen in the photo album he keeps on his university web page.)