LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT OF PROSPECTIVE MEMORY

Abstract

The paper aims to review the development of prospective memory (PM) in lifespan and its cognitive correlates considering childhood, young adulthood and old adulthood. Prospective memory is the ability to remember to carry out plans in the future. It is crucial for daily functioning especially for children so that they become independent of their caregivers. In the first section of this paper, brief description of prospective memory is explained with both everyday scenarios and laboratory tasks (e.g., including time-based and event-based PM studies), along with the proposed models in understanding the mechanisms of the cognitive processes. In the second section of the paper, the involvement of executive functioning (EF) for both children and adults is discussed. Also, the involvement of executive functioning for PM is further discussed along with the proposed frameworks. The third section of the paper discusses the prospective memory performance and correlates in older adults. The close relationship between prospective memory, executive functions and working memory is especially found to be pronounced in childhood.  Therefore, more research is needed in future considerations that might lead the current research in prospective memory within a developmental perspective.