This study is the first to compare event-based prospective memory performance in
individuals with depression and healthy controls. The degree to which self-initiated
processing is required to perform the prospective memory task was varied. Twenty-eight
individuals with depression and 32 healthy controls worked on a computerized prospective
memory task. Prospective cues were either presented focally or nonfocally to the ongoing
activity. Collapsing data across both conditions, controls outperformed individuals with
depression in the prospective memory task. Overall, participants showed a poorer prospective
memory performance in the nonfocal condition that required self-initiated processing to a
higher degree than the focal condition. Importantly, as revealed by a group by task condition
interaction, groups did not differ in the focal condition, whereas, controls outperformed
individuals with depression in the nonfocal condition. The results are in line with the
multiprocess framework of event-based prospective remembering and the cognitive-initiative
account of depression-related cognitive deficits
