Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Unresolved Interruptions On Prospective Memory, Joseph T. Slayton

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

I investigated how memory for future intentions (termed prospective memory or PM) was impacted by interruptions, unresolved interruptions, and delays. The PM task was to shop for eight items within an environmental sustainability rating task. A comedy routine appeared after participants had rated several items for both interruption groups, while the delay group viewed the comedy routine before beginning the shopping task. In the unresolved interruption group the comedy routine never reached its conclusion. I predicted that 1) PM performance would be hindered by interruptions with the unresolved group performing worst, 2) that working memory capacity would moderate effects of …