Prospective Memory: Remembering to Remember, Remembering to Forget

Anna-Lisa Cohen is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University in New York, New York. Her research is guided by an interest in the influence that future goals and intentions have on behavior.  She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Victoria, Canada.  Her research informs the development of theoretical orientations for understanding the cognitive processes that support prospective memory.  For example, her research on the intention interference effect shows that cues related to a delayed intention are difficult to ignore when encountered in an unexpected context and this is true for both young and older adults.  An enduring theme in much of her research is the flexibility with which participants are able to engage and disengage monitoring processes depending on the nature of task demands.

Jason L. Hicks is a Professor of Psychology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In1998 he earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive/Experimental Psychology from the University of Georgia. His research interests include source memory, recognition memory, false memory, and prospective memory (PM). He has published over 30 articles or book chapters on PM. His work focuses on encoding, retrieval, and contextual factors that predict successful intention retrieval. Perhaps the most programmatic contribution in this area is a specification of the cognitive resources demanded by prospective memory retrieval. His early work highlighted the degrees to which prospective memory retrieval requires executive resources, but more recent work demonstrates that people can flexibly allocate attention depending on their appreciation of the demands governing anticipated retrieval contexts.