Prospective Memory, Personality, and Working Memory: A Formal Modeling Approach.

Abstract

Prospective memory (PM) involves remembering to perform an action in the future. The current study applies a multinomial model to investigate the contribution of individual differences in personality, as well as individual differences in working memory span, to performance in an event-based PM task. The model includes a parameter P that measures the prospective component, or remembering that something is to be done. The model also includes a parameter M that measures the ability to discriminate between target and non-target events, part of the retrospective component of PM tasks. The model has been applied to investigate the effects of working memory variability in just one prior study, but has not been used in previous investigations of personality and PM. Working memory span and the personality dimension of conscientiousness showed differences between the higher and lower groups in PM performance. Modeling results showed that individuals higher in conscientiousness had higher estimated of M relative to individuals lower on the conscientiousness dimension. Conscientiousness did not affect the P parameter. In contrast, individuals with higher working memory span scores had higher estimates of P relative to individuals with lower span scores, but the two working memory groups did not differ in terms of parameter M.