Intention superiority effect: A context-switching account

Abstract

Intention superiority effect [J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 19 (1993) 1211; J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 24 (1998) 350] is the finding that the times to retrieve memory items related to uncompleted or partially completed intentions are faster than for those with no associated intentions. However, this relationship reverses when the intended tasks are completed [J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 24 (1998) 350; Mem. Cogn. 27 (1999) 320]. That is, the times to retrieve memory items related to completed intentions are slower than for those with no associated intentions. In this paper, we present a computational account of the intention superiority effect using the ACT-R cognitive architecture [Atomic components of thought. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998]. Our modeling approach is based on the idea that uncompleted or partially completed intentions are available as context in the current goal, and they prime related memory items while inhibiting unrelated memory items. However, once the intended tasks are completed, they are removed from the current goal, which produces an inhibitory effect on memory items associated with them. We describe an ACT-R model that is able to reproduce all of the effects reported in Marsh et al. [J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 24 (1998) 350].

Introduction

Prospective memory refers to remembering future tasks, whereas retrospective memory refers to remembering past events (Neisser, 1982). Examples of people using prospective memory abound in everyday life, from a child intending to meet her friends after school to a parent intending to stop by the store to pick up milk after work. While the use of prospective memory is a crucial aspect of human cognition, memory researchers have mostly focused on retrospective memory. Only recently have they turned their attention to prospective memory (Brandimonte, Einstein, & McDaniel, 1996). The first international conference on the subject was held in July 2000 at the University of Hertfordshire.

Unfortunately, while interest in prospective memory has been increasing, the progress in understanding it has been rather slow. One of the main reasons for this has been the lack of ‘integrative theoretical frameworks for organizing the empirical findings’ (Goschke & Kuhl, 1996, p. 53). We believe that the ACT-R theory (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) is uniquely qualified to provide such an integrative theoretical framework. ACT-R is a unified theory of cognition with deep roots in human memory (e.g. Anderson & Bower, 1973), and it has been successfully applied to a wide range of empirical phenomena in psychology including memory, learning and problem solving, decision making, and perception and action (cf. Anderson & Lebiere, 1998). As such, ACT-R must endeavor to account for the empirical findings from prospective memory research.

To begin the task of understanding prospective memory from the ACT-R theoretical framework, we decided to focus on the intention superiority effect (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993, Marsh et al., 1998, Marsh et al., 1999), because it is one of the few empirical results in prospective memory that has been studied under carefully controlled experimental conditions.