Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory
Previous research suggests that when intentions are encoded, participants establish an attention allocation policy based on their metacognitive beliefs about how demanding it will be to fulfill the prospective memory (PM) task. We investigated whether tacit PM demands can influence judgments about t...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00242/full |
| _version_ | 1818188120985698304 |
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| author | Joana S Lourenco Johnathan H Hill Elizabeth Ann Maylor |
| author_facet | Joana S Lourenco Johnathan H Hill Elizabeth Ann Maylor |
| author_sort | Joana S Lourenco |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Previous research suggests that when intentions are encoded, participants establish an attention allocation policy based on their metacognitive beliefs about how demanding it will be to fulfill the prospective memory (PM) task. We investigated whether tacit PM demands can influence judgments about the cognitive effort required for success, and, as a result, affect ongoing task interference and PM performance. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which a PM task of responding to animal words was embedded. PM demands were tacitly manipulated by presenting participants with either typical or atypical animal exemplars at both instructions and practice (low vs. high tacit demands, respectively). Crucially, objective PM task demands were the same for all participants as PM targets were always atypical animals. Tacit demands affected participants’ attention allocation policies such that task interference was greater for the high than low demands condition. Also, PM performance was reduced in the low relative to the high demands condition. Participants in the low demands condition who succeeded to the first target showed a subsequent increase in task interference, suggesting adjustment to the higher than expected demands. This study demonstrates that tacit information regarding the PM task can affect ongoing task processing as well as harm PM performance when actual demands are higher than expected. Furthermore, in line with the proposal that attention allocation is a dynamic and flexible process, we found evidence that PM task experience can trigger changes in ongoing task interference. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:21:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f2e74de9ad884156a7dcc37fb8711563 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:21:53Z |
| publishDate | 2015-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-f2e74de9ad884156a7dcc37fb87115632022-12-22T00:46:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612015-04-01910.3389/fnhum.2015.00242139333Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memoryJoana S Lourenco0Johnathan H Hill1Elizabeth Ann Maylor2University of Warwick UKUniversity of Warwick UKUniversity of Warwick UKPrevious research suggests that when intentions are encoded, participants establish an attention allocation policy based on their metacognitive beliefs about how demanding it will be to fulfill the prospective memory (PM) task. We investigated whether tacit PM demands can influence judgments about the cognitive effort required for success, and, as a result, affect ongoing task interference and PM performance. Participants performed a lexical decision task in which a PM task of responding to animal words was embedded. PM demands were tacitly manipulated by presenting participants with either typical or atypical animal exemplars at both instructions and practice (low vs. high tacit demands, respectively). Crucially, objective PM task demands were the same for all participants as PM targets were always atypical animals. Tacit demands affected participants’ attention allocation policies such that task interference was greater for the high than low demands condition. Also, PM performance was reduced in the low relative to the high demands condition. Participants in the low demands condition who succeeded to the first target showed a subsequent increase in task interference, suggesting adjustment to the higher than expected demands. This study demonstrates that tacit information regarding the PM task can affect ongoing task processing as well as harm PM performance when actual demands are higher than expected. Furthermore, in line with the proposal that attention allocation is a dynamic and flexible process, we found evidence that PM task experience can trigger changes in ongoing task interference.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00242/fullmetacognitionprospective memoryTask interferenceattention allocation policytacit demandsanticipated demands |
| spellingShingle | Joana S Lourenco Johnathan H Hill Elizabeth Ann Maylor Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory Frontiers in Human Neuroscience metacognition prospective memory Task interference attention allocation policy tacit demands anticipated demands |
| title | Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| title_full | Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| title_fullStr | Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| title_full_unstemmed | Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| title_short | Too easy? The influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| title_sort | too easy the influence of task demands conveyed tacitly on prospective memory |
| topic | metacognition prospective memory Task interference attention allocation policy tacit demands anticipated demands |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00242/full |
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