Negative prospective memory: Remembering not to perform an action

Sometimes it is important to remember not to perform an action, such as remembering to stop taking seasonal allergy medicine when it is no longer needed. Mistakes in accomplishing this goal can involve prospective memory commission errors when individuals mistakenly perform a prospective response. In two experiments, we investigated the role of attentional resources in preventing prospective memory errors to cues that had been associated with a habitual prospective response. In Phase 1 of our experiments, participants performed a prospective memory task during which they either routinely responded to prospective memory cues or responded to these cues one time only. On a subsequent prospective memory task, the participants who had routinely responded to prospective memory cues were vulnerable to commission errors when their attentional resources were taxed. By contrast, dividing attention did not increase commission errors to cues that had not been routinely performed on an earlier task. These data indicate that attentional resources are needed to withhold making habitual prospective memory responses, and they suggest that inhibitory failures are a cause of these prospective memory errors. Finally, we suggest a broader definition of prospective memory that includes remembering to withhold performing actions.