ABSTRACT
When a person remembers the words to a favorite song, who won Wimbledon two years ago, or how many feet there are in a mile, he or she is demonstrating proficiencey in using retrospective memory. However, there is another type of memory that has been studied a great deal less but that is also of great value to us in our daily lives. This other type of memory is called prospective memory and it involves the ability to remember to carry out future tasks. Examples of everyday tasks that require good prospective memory skills abound, such as remembering to pick up the kids from daycare, to keep an appointment with your stock broker, or to send birthday cards (in a timely fashion!) to your siblings. Several studies have indicated that there does not appear to be a positive correlation between the two types of memory tasks (Einstein & McDaniel, 1990; Kvavilashvili, 1987; Maylor, 1990; Meacham & Leiman, 1975/1982), and, in fact, one study actually found a negative relationship between a retrospective and a prospective memory task (Wilkins & Baddeley, 1978).
