Thread: Any tips on improving prospective memory?

Every time I do exercises that'll aid my prospective memory It'll always come back to the surface of my mind.

For example: I'll tell myself 'next time I see a kettle I'll tap the sink 17 times in a row'

(After telling myself this after half an hour 45 minuets It'll just come to the surface when there's no kettle around).

I've tried using video games to help me put it at the back of my mind lets say 'after this match I'll move the lynx spray to the weight bench' but it still surfaces to me mind even before the match ends.

Any tips would be amazing thankyou

I've tried using video games to help me put it at the back of my mind lets say 'after this match I'll move the lynx spray to the weight bench' but it still surfaces to me mind even before the match ends.

That's not a bad thing, on the contrary. You see, prospective memory training is done mostly at higher ages (it's very famous in older adults/individuals with cognitive impairment/alzheimer's) because people can't get the intention to pop up randomly as you/we do.

That said, you can look out for studies regarding prospective memory training, see the methods used, and then apply them to your particular level.
If you want a heads up, it will mostly revolve around:

a) Increasing the number of targets with differentiated responses (e.g: do X reality check when you see x1, do Y reality check when you hear y1, etc);
b) Increase time lengths;
c) Increase repetitiveness (you'd think it would be the other way around, but it's harder to pay attention to 20 instances of a common occurrence - because you start getting desensitized, than it is to pay attention to 3 instances of an uncommon occurrence).

As a last piece of advice: start tailoring it towards lucid dreaming (as I'm assuming that's your goal): DJ is a great help here, dream signs are abundant (if you have troubles finding them, just remember they are present on several levels of specificity), and will give you plenty of cues to work with.
(This is why I'm such a big fan of DIPE: it automatically presents you with many different cues that work independently or dependently of each other, making it an intensive but quite thorough program).

Good luck

Originally Posted by Zoth

That's not a bad thing, on the contrary. You see, prospective memory training is done mostly at higher ages (it's very famous in older adults/individuals with cognitive impairment/alzheimer's) because people can't get the intention to pop up randomly as you/we do.

That said, you can look out for studies regarding prospective memory training, see the methods used, and then apply them to your particular level.
If you want a heads up, it will mostly revolve around:

a) Increasing the number of targets with differentiated responses (e.g: do X reality check when you see x1, do Y reality check when you hear y1, etc);
b) Increase time lengths;
c) Increase repetitiveness (you'd think it would be the other way around, but it's harder to pay attention to 20 instances of a common occurrence - because you start getting desensitized, than it is to pay attention to 3 instances of an uncommon occurrence).

As a last piece of advice: start tailoring it towards lucid dreaming (as I'm assuming that's your goal): DJ is a great help here, dream signs are abundant (if you have troubles finding them, just remember they are present on several levels of specificity), and will give you plenty of cues to work with.
(This is why I'm such a big fan of DIPE: it automatically presents you with many different cues that work independently or dependently of each other, making it an intensive but quite thorough program).

Good luck

I'm going to be honest. I could tell that you had posted in this thread before I even opened it, haha. That link is cool too.
While I'm here, sorry for not replying to the PM earlier, it had a lot in it to think about. Hopefully I'll tackle a response by tomorrow.

I would emphasize that you should 1) start with a small number of tasks, 2) they should be repeatable, and 3) they should be practical. You don't want to juggle too many at once. You want to give them enough time to build a habit. And you don't want the task to be a silly chore that you will give up on. Save your mental capacity for things that are actually important to you. For example:

"Every time I wash and dry my hands, I will re-fold the towel and place it back on the rack."

That is simple, repeatable, and practical. Obviously, you need to choose something relevant to you. I think any task where you clean or re-organize something after using it is a good candidate. Anyway, the goal is to allow time and repetition for it to become a habit, so that you develop the unconscious trust that your prospective memory will kick in at the right time instead of being afraid of forgetting all the time.

Once you have built up the prospective memory muscle and unconscious trust with "every time..." habits, then you can start adding some more narrow "next time..." triggers. Don't overload yourself with too many juggling balls. That's the benefit of, for example, the peg system. In a peg system, you have a fixed number of slots that you re-use. You first need to develop a strong habit for the system in general, and once it is engrained, then you can apply it to specific cases.

Use paper notes