I Won’t Forget to Do It If It’s Important: A Multinomial Processing Tree Analysis of Social Importance and Monetary Reward on Event-Based Prospective Memory

Blondelle, Geoffrey; Quaglino, Véronique; Gounden, Yannick; Dethoor, Anaïs; Duclos, Harmony; Hainselin, Mathieu · 2024 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.5334/joc.367

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates how social importance and monetary rewards influence event-based prospective memory (PM), specifically examining the underlying cognitive mechanisms responsible for performance enhancements. While previous research established that motivational incentives improve PM, it remained unclear whether these improvements stem from enhanced strategic monitoring (the prospective component) or better target recognition (the retrospective component). The authors aimed to disentangle these processes using a multinomial processing tree (MPT) model, testing whether motivational incentives increase the allocation of attentional resources to the PM task at the expense of the ongoing task. The experiment involved 96 young adults randomly assigned to one of four conditions: standard instructions, social importance (performing a favor for patients), monetary reward (earning 10 euros), or a combination of both. Participants performed a non-focal event-based PM task embedded within an ongoing color-matching task. They were instructed to press a specific key when one of six target words appeared, rather than responding to the color-matching stimulus. The study utilized the MPT model to estimate parameters for the prospective component (probability of engaging preparatory attentional processes) and the retrospective component (probability of recognizing the target). Data analysis included ANOVAs for performance metrics and maximum-likelihood estimation for the MPT parameters. Results indicated that PM performance was significantly higher in all three importance conditions (social, monetary, and combined) compared to the standard condition, with no significant differences among the importance groups themselves. Crucially, the MPT analysis revealed that this improvement was driven exclusively by an increased engagement of the prospective component. The retrospective component, reflecting target recognition, remained unaffected across all conditions, a finding supported by the lack of difference in post-test target recognition scores. Furthermore, the enhancement in PM performance was characterized by an increased allocation of resource-demanding attentional processes to the PM task, which resulted in costs to the ongoing task performance. This suggests that participants adopted a more strategic monitoring approach when motivated, rather than relying on spontaneous retrieval. The findings demonstrate that both social importance and monetary rewards enhance event-based prospective memory by increasing strategic monitoring efforts, specifically boosting the prospective component of PM. This improvement occurs without altering the retrospective recall of the intention. The study clarifies that motivational incentives lead to a reallocation of attentional resources away from the ongoing task toward the PM task, supporting the goal-based motivational-cognitive model’s prediction that importance increases goal accessibility through effortful processes. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for why motivational incentives improve PM, highlighting the role of strategic resource allocation in non-focal PM tasks.

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• prospective memory interruptions