Prospective memory and spontaneous thoughts about the future in everyday life
Lia Kvavilashvili (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
Jan Rummel (Heidelberg University, Germany)
This talk will address two key questions: what is the content of spontaneous thoughts about the future in everyday life and do they serve any function? We will present evidence from research on episodic future thinking, mind-wandering and prospective memory showing that (1) spontaneous thoughts about the future occur frequently, (2) the content of these thoughts often refers to one’s upcoming prospective memory tasks (e.g., I need to send a birthday card tomorrow), and (3) thinking about upcoming tasks increases the chances that the tasks will be remembered and carried out in the future.