Name: Jessie Martin

Date: Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Time: 1:30pm

Location: JS Coon 148

Committee Chair:

Professor Randall Engle, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Professor Jill Shelton, Ph.D. (University of Tennessee Chattanooga)

Professor Mark Wheeler, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Professor Jenny Singleton, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Professor Rick Thomas, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title: Individual Differences in Prospective Memory Performance: A Micro and Macro-analytic Investigation of Intention Execution, and Ongoing Task Cost

Abstract

Laboratory studies of prospective memory have expanded our understanding about circumstances under which individuals maintain and execute a given prospective memory intention. However, it is only recently that efforts have focused on the role of individual differences in prospective memory performance (Brewer et al., 2010). Specifically, the degree to which individual differences in cognitive ability inform ongoing task performance remains under investigated (or maybe unclear) is even less clear. Moreover, the ability to measure the very costs that occur when a prospective memory intention has been added has been largely limited to reaction-time difference scores, a method of dubious reliability (Cronbach & Furby, 1970). In order to better understand prospective memory performance and the cognitive processes that underlie successful retrieval of an intention, the field must move beyond evaluations of the tasks themselves to the underlying mechanisms that contribute to performance, as well as critically evaluating how processes within the task are measured.

This study will expand our understanding of individual differences on prospective memory performance, as well as the degree to which individuals navigate the additional demands of a prospective memory intention. Specifically, I will extend work regarding the role of attention, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence on prospective memory performance, as well as ongoing task performance. I will propose and evaluate new methods of examining ongoing task costs in order to expand our understanding of how individuals manage the additional demands of a prospective memory intention. Finally, I will compare these relationships across differing prospective memory tasks settings at the latent level.