ABSTRACT
Prospective memory serves an important function for older adults. Some prospective memory tasks help foster and maintain social relations, such as remembering to send a grandchild or a friend a birthday card. Other prospective memory tasks are necessary for normal maintenance, such as remembering to stop at the store for bread, remembering to pay utility bills when they are due, and remembering to turn off the oven. Many other tasks are central to the health needs of older adults, such as remembering to take medication (see McDaniel & Einstein, 2007) and remembering to monitor indexes of physical function (e.g., blood sugar levels; Liu & Park, 2004). Accordingly, in the past 15 years, researchers have begun to focus on age-related changes in prospective memory.
