An investigation of the effects of prospective memory training

A within-subject operant design was used to evaluate the efficacy of prospective memory training in a 51-year-old brain-injured male with a severe memory impairment. Training consisted of repetitive administration of prospective memory tasks whereby the subject was given actions to perform at specified future times. The length of time between task administration and task execution was systematically lengthened. Probes were taken evaluating generalization to performance on naturalistic, real-life prospective memory tasks and to performance on retrospective memory or recall measures. Results suggested a significant and steady increase in the subject's prospective memory ability over time; however, changes were not experimentally controlled, thus the data are descriptive in nature. Methodological limitations and issues pertinent to the future investigation of prospective memory are discussed at length, in the hope of encouraging further evaluation of this preliminary, promising technique.