Between Alarms and Scheduling: The Effect of Cognitive Offloading on Prospective and Retrospective Memory

Abstract

Prospective memory (i.e., remembering to complete future plans) and retrospective memory (i.e., memory for past events) are essential to daily functioning, but both are prone to everyday failures, such as forgetting to carry out an intended action (e.g., missing a medication dose) or inaccurately recalling past information (e.g., forgetting the details of a recent conversation). To mitigate these, individuals may rely on cognitive offloading, the use of physical actions or external tools to reduce retrieval effort (e.g., setting an alarm to avoid forgetting an important task). This study examined the impact of cognitive offloading on both prospective and retrospective memory, using two offloading strategies. In the first phase, 152 participants were instructed to send an email 48 h later at 7 p.m. and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a reminder (e.g., an alarm), a scheduled email for automatic delivery, or no reminder (internal memory). They also watched a news report. In the second phase, participants sent an email (prospective memory) and then completed a free recall question about the video (retrospective memory). Results show that both offloading conditions performed better in the prospective task. Notably, there were no significant differences in retrospective memory performance. Overall, cognitive offloading enhanced prospective memory and subjective confidence but did not influence retrospective recall, highlighting a dissociation between remembering when to act and remembering contextual information.