Prospective memory aid reminder system design for group tasks

Abstract

Prospective memory is a form of memory involving remembering to perform delayed intentions or planned actions. Prospective memory (PM) failures may lead to serious consequences. Although many PM aid systems have been developed, existing works on reminder systems only focus on individual tasks. However, people with PM difficulties (e.g., elderly) are often involved in many group tasks and it is important to take into account the interaction between group members while designing an efficient reminding system for group tasks. Based on the theoretical background of PM, this paper thoroughly analyzes the factors that will affect the PM task performance and proposes a computational approach for determining the appropriate number of reminders and reminding method. To evaluate the proposed reminding model, we conducted a preliminary user study and the participants felt that the reminders are appropriate and our approach provides a better overall experience and reminds more effectively than its control version.