Strengthening encoding via implementation intention formation increases prospective memory commission errors

Bugg, Julie M.; Scullin, Michael K.; McDaniel, Mark A. · 2013 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/s13423-013-0378-3

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Summary

This study investigates the impact of encoding strength on prospective memory (PM) commission errors, defined as the erroneous execution of an intention after it has been completed. While prior research on PM errors focused primarily on omissions (failures to act), recent work has highlighted commission errors. Previous studies largely attributed these errors to retrieval-phase factors, such as fatigue or divided attention, assuming encoding was equivalent across conditions. This paper addresses a gap in the literature by examining whether the initial strategy used to encode an intention influences the likelihood of later commission errors, specifically comparing implementation intention (II) encoding against standard encoding. The researchers employed a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design with 63 young adults and 47 older adults. Participants engaged in a lexical decision task serving as the ongoing activity. They were instructed to press a specific key upon seeing target words presented against a salient colored background. In the standard encoding condition, participants wrote down the targets and mentally imagined the task. In the II condition, participants verbally formed an "if-then" plan (e.g., "When I see [target], I will press [key]") and visualized the action. After an active-PM phase where they performed the task, participants were instructed that the PM task was finished. They then completed a finished-PM phase where target cues continued to appear, allowing researchers to measure commission errors (pressing the key despite instructions to stop). The results demonstrated that implementation intention encoding significantly increased the risk of commission errors. Relative to standard encoding, II encoding doubled the likelihood of participants making at least one commission error in the finished-PM phase. This effect was observed in both young and older adults, with no significant age differences in error rates within either encoding condition. During the active-PM phase, performance was at ceiling for all groups, ensuring that the encoding manipulation did not confound the results by creating differential success rates prior to the task completion. Subjective reports from participants in the II condition suggested that their errors felt more automatic or reflexive compared to those in the standard condition. The findings indicate that encoding processes play a critical role in modulating PM commission errors, challenging the view that only retrieval-phase factors are relevant. The strong cue-intention associative links forged by implementation intentions, while beneficial for initial task execution, appear to exacerbate the difficulty of deactivating the intention once it is no longer relevant. This suggests that II encoding promotes spontaneous retrieval of the finished intention, leading to erroneous execution. The study highlights a potential downside to II strategies: they may increase the risk of harmful repetitions for tasks that are only temporarily relevant, such as medication adherence where dosage schedules change. The authors conclude that future research should explore methods to effectively deactivate or overwrite II-encoded intentions to mitigate these commission errors.

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• prospective memory interruptions