Prospective memory and its theoretical considerations

Prospective memory involves memory for future intentions in our everyday lives and it is one of the hot topics in current memory research. We reexamined what is prospective memory and discussed how intentions had been conceived of in the history of psychology. We emphasize the necessity of classifying a form of remembering intentions into the self-initiated existence-remembrance and its content-remembrance. Many studies on prospective memory in recent decades were reviewed with respect to the following perspectives: (1) how intentions are recollected, (2) what is remembering intentions based on, (3) how we attempt to avoid forgetting to do things, and (4) what is neuropsychological mechanism of remembering intentions. Requirements for experimental research on prospective memory are summarized and future directions are discussed.