Implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory under high attention demands

An implementation intention is a planning technique that involves specifying a situation for initiating an intended action and linking these specific cues to the intention. In two experiments with young adults, we found significant increases in prospective memory with implementation intentions. With an implementation intention, but not with standard instructions, prospective memory performance was maintained under demanding attentional conditions (Experiment 2). Ongoing task performance did not decline, however, in relation with a no prospective memory control. Positive effects were not observed when the imagery component of the implementation intention was isolated from the verbal component. We suggest that implementation intention planning (relative to standard instructions) increases the likelihood that people will encode a robust associative link between the target cue and the intended action, thereby promoting reflexive triggering of the intended action on presentation of the target cue.