ABSTRACT
Articles on prospective memory traditionally begin with some everyday ex amples of prospective remembering, and this one is no exception. Remem bering to pay an electricity bill on time, to take medicine every 4 hours, and to pass a message on to a friend, would generally be regarded as prospective memory tasks. These contrast with retrospective memory tasks, such as rec ognizing a familiar face, recalling the details of an accident, or retrieving the name of a country’s capital city. The psychological literature is dominated by studies of retrospective memory However, both prospective and retrospective memory abilities are required for successful functioning in everyday life, and this is no less true of the elderly (at least those living independently) than of the young.
