ABSTRACT
The research presented in the previous chapters holds exciting prospects for the study of memory. Not all memory research is motivated by a phenomenon whose existence outside the laboratory is beyond dispute, but the validity of prospective memory is without question. This validity assures not only that the research will be of some practical advantage, but also that the data obtained from studies that do mirror nonlaboratory prospective memory provide a valid criterion against which to assess extant concepts. Gan we use existing ideas to some advantage in understanding prospective memory, and if not, is it because the phenomemon is different or because those ideas are inadequate for their current application? The attempt to distinguish prospective and retrospective memory will provide such information, because the tools of memory theory were forged from studies of retrospective memory, yet the implicit assumption is that prospective memory is a different psychological process. Evaluation of this assumption entails not only demonstrating the inadequacy of current con cepts as exhaustive explanations of prospective memory, but will also produce new information about retrospective memory.
