Prospective memory : impact of age and grocery shopping frequency on memory performance

Remembering to do things at the right time, is as important as being able to retrieve information from our past. For this reason, prospective memory is an important concept one should bear in mind in order to maintain function in everyday life. This dissertation seeks to understand to what extent does age and frequency influence memory performance for the prospective task of grocery shopping. Particularly, to test if consumers who are older and have more experience in performing grocery shopping tasks, are those who have the best memory to recall specific items, after a short interval of time. To achieve this aim, 181 participants from ages between 19 and 66 years old were surveyed. Results indicated that neither higher age nor higher frequency have a correlation with higher memory performance scores. Despite this, a positive correlation was found between higher age and higher grocery shopping frequency, meaning that older people tend to visit grocery stores more often than do younger ones. For future research is advised to collect a larger sample size, in order to provide more accurate results.Ter a capacidade de nos lembrarmos de executar tarefas no momento certo, é tão importante quanto podermos recuperar informações acerca do nosso passado. Por este motivo, para que se mantenha um funcionamento correto do nosso dia-a-dia, a memória prospectiva é um conceito essencial a ter em consideração. Este estudo visa compreender em que medida a idade e a frequência influenciam o desempenho da memória para a tarefa prospectiva de compras de supermercado. Em particular, testar se os consumidores com mais idade e que frequentam os supermercados com maior frequência, são aqueles que apresentam melhores desempenhos de memória para se lembrarem de produtos específicos, após um curto intervalo de tempo. De forma a alcançar este objetivo, foram inquiridas 181 pessoas com idades compreendidas entre os 19 e os 66 anos de idade. Os resultados demonstraram que nem mais idade, nem mais frequência têm uma correlação com um melhor desempenho de memória. Apesar disso, foi encontrada uma correlação positiva entre idade mais elevada, e uma maior frequência em compras, o que significa que pessoas com maior idade tendem a frequentar mais os supermercados do que a pessoas mais jovens. Para futuros estudos e pesquisas, é aconselhado recolher uma maior amostra, de forma a obter resultados mais precisos

Consumers' memory in supermarkets

In literature it is possible to find several studies of marketing and consumer behavior about factors that influence consumers’ choices in the act of consumption (Harris, 1958; McClure and West, 1969; McEnally and Hawes, 1984; Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000). However, only a few of that literature is related to supermarkets. The aim of this thesis is to extend the literature on consumer’s memory in a supermarket context, providing a better understanding on why consumers continue to not use shopping lists even though the presence of forgetfulness is present. With that purpose, was analyzed how some influential factors act, such as the use of external memory aids, on consumers’ memory performance and memory prediction, while shopping in supermarkets. In order to collect data to determine whether our hypotheses are factual or not, one pre-test and two studies were conducted. Findings confirmed our expected correlations between product’s familiarity (Familiar vs. Unfamiliar) and how easily we remember it (Recall vs. Recognition). The reasons why consumers persist in not using shopping lists were also discovered. These findings contribute with further insights on how consumers’ memory work and what are the factors that influence consumers’ memory in a supermarket experience, with the particular purpose of trying to comprehend why the majority of consumers have already forgotten to buy a planned purchase and still persist in not to use shopping lists.Na literatura é possível encontrar diversos estudos de Marketing e Consumer Behavior sobre factores que influenciam as escolhas dos consumidores no acto de compra (Harris, 1958; McClure e West, 1969; McEnally e Hawes, 1984; Yalch e Spangenberg, 2000). No entanto, apenas uma pequena percentagem desses estudos está relacionada com experiências em supermercados. A presente tese tem como principal objectivo alargar a literatura existente relativa à memória dos consumidores quando estudada tendo os supermercados como contexto, proporcionando uma melhor percepção sobre o porquê dos mesmos continuarem a não usar listas de compras, apesar de terem consciência que a sua memória pode falhar. Com essa finalidade, foi analisada a influência que alguns factores, como é o caso dos auxiliares de memória externa, detêm sobre a memory performance e memory prediction dos consumidores no momento da realização das suas compras. A fim de reunir dados para determinar a veracidade, ou não, das nossas hipóteses, foi realizado um pré-teste e dois estudos. A informação recolhida confirmou a existência de uma correlação entre a familiaridade dos produtos (Familiar vs Unfamiliar) e a maneira como nos recordarmos deles (Recall vs Recognition). As razões que justificam o facto de os consumidores persistirem em não usar lista de compras sempre que vão ao supermercado, foram também descobertas. Este estudo contribui com novos insights sobre a maneira como funciona a memória dos consumidores dentro de um supermercado, tendo como principal objectivo perceber o porquê da maioria dos consumidores já se ter esquecido de comprar produtos que necessitava e ainda assim continuar a não usar listas de compras

False claims about false memory research

Pezdek and Lam [Pezdek, K. & Lam, S. (2007). What research paradigms have cognitive psychologists used to study “False memory,” and what are the implications of these choices? Consciousness and Cognition] claim that the majority of research into false memories has been misguided. Specifically, they charge that false memory scientists have been (1) misusing the term “false memory,” (2) relying on the wrong methodologies to study false memories, and (3) misapplying false memory research to real world situations. We review each of these claims and highlight the problems with them. We conclude that several types of false memory research have advanced our knowledge of autobiographical and recovered memories, and that future research will continue to make significant contributions to how we understand memory and memory errors

Cognitive abilities and prospective memory : a research on short time intervals affecting people’s decision making and planning

In this paper, we explored the effect of time on people’s prospective memory intentions and their cognitive abilities when making memory predictions. Although retention interval was the experimental variable in between phases of our experiments, we modified the intensity of the ongoing activity and the sources of the prospective activities in experiment one and two. Thus, we conducted two experiments: in experiment one participants generated future intentions and predicted their performance; in experiment two participants performed a more compelling task while instructed and tested about the prospective tasks that had to be remembered. In both experiments respondents had to recall the future intentions on later stages. Generally we found that time has a negative impact on memory. There is a strong decay in memory after 30 minutes and not much further decay after 60 minutes. We also observed that people’s predictions about their memory don’t take into account the effect of time interval on memory. Our objectives were to contribute to the existing literature on human metacognition through testing prospective memory performance, predictions and fluency before and during the execution of future intentions. Furthermore, the present thesis attempted to corroborate the use of advertising and promotion in order to maintain vivid the desire and the need to buy products in consumers’ minds, as they fail to predict that their memory decays over short periods of time. People forget faster than they anticipate and are thus likely to forget what they need to do if not having a memory cue

The influence of enjoyment on remembering : an analysis of memory in decision-­making

Forgetting is a constant companion in people’s lives. Throughout the day, people face multiple situations in which they need to evaluate whether they will remember to do an activity or not and decide on the usage of memory aids. However, people err in making predictions about their memory which leads to forgetting. To gain a deeper understanding of people’s failure to remember, this work examines influences on an individual’s memory performance with the purpose of understanding how accurately people predict their memory performance. Thus, a study on judgements of learning is conducted with common activities as to­be­remembered items, and it reveals that people overestimate their memory, believing they would remember more than they do. This overconfidence is even more apparent when people are tasked to remember items for five days. Further, influences of enjoyability and indication of external memory aid usage on actual and predicted memory performance is explored, however, no statistical evidence is found. The data suggests that people do not accurately predict their memory, indicating a need for improvements of the evaluation processes people use or higher usage of memory aids. Especially, if items need to be remembered for longer periods, it is recommendable to make use of memory aids to prevent needless forgetting.O esquecimento é um companheiro constante na vida das pessoas. Ao longo do dia, as pessoas enfrentam múltiplas situações em que precisam avaliar se vão ou não se lembrar de fazer uma atividade e decidir sobre o uso de ajudas de memória. No entanto, as pessoas erram ao fazer previsões sobre a sua memória, o que leva ao esquecimento. Para obter uma compreensão mais profunda da incapacidade de memória das pessoas, este trabalho examina as influências sobre o desempenho da memória de um indivíduo com o objetivo de compreender a precisão com que as pessoas preveem o seu desempenho de memória. Assim, um estudo sobre julgamentos de aprendizagem é conduzido com atividades comuns como itens a serem recordados, e revela que as pessoas sobrestimam a sua memória, acreditando que se lembrariam mais do que se lembram. Este excesso de confiança é ainda mais evidente quando as pessoas são encarregues de recordar objetos durante cinco dias. Além disso, são exploradas as influências do prazer e da indicação da utilização de ajuda da memória externa no desempenho real e previsto da memória, no entanto, não são encontradas provas estatísticas. Os dados sugerem que as pessoas não preveem com precisão a sua memória, indicando a necessidade de melhorias nos processos de avaliação que as pessoas utilizam ou uma maior utilização de ajudas de memória. Especialmente, se os itens precisarem de ser lembrados por períodos mais longos, é recomendável fazer uso de ajudas de memória para evitar o esquecimento desnecessário

Why Do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Password Managers?

People use weak passwords for a variety of reasons, the most prescient of these being memory load and inconvenience. The motivation to choose weak passwords is even more compelling on Smartphones because entering complex passwords is particularly time consuming and arduous on small devices. Many of the memory- and inconvenience-related issues can be ameliorated by using a password manager app. Such an app can generate, remember and automatically supply passwords to websites and other apps on the phone. Given this potential, it is unfortunate that these applications have not enjoyed widespread adoption. We carried out a study to find out why this was so, to investigate factors that impeded or encouraged password manager adoption. We found that a number of factors mediated during all three phases of adoption: searching, deciding and trialling. The study’s findings will help us to market these tools more effectively in order to encourage future adoption of password managers

Designing a mobile augmented memory system for people with traumatic brain injuries

Augmented memory systems help people remember events in their lives. Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) often have memory impairments. We conducted a user study to learn about strategies individuals with TBI use to remember events in their lives. We explored what characteristics individuals with TBI expect of an augmented memory system. We then investigated these aspects in an initial mobile app design, and propose here a concept for a rehearsal application that addresses the issues found in our studies