A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology reveals that cue saliency significantly outperforms episodic future thinking (EFT) in improving prospective memory (PM) in school-age children, offering practical strategies to enhance their self-regulation and daily task management.

Prospective memory—the ability to remember and execute planned future tasks—is a foundational cognitive skill for school-age children, essential for organizing routines such as submitting signed forms (event-based PM) or remembering weekend activities (time-based PM). However, children often make PM-related errors, which can affect academic performance and daily functioning.

While prior studies have indicated that both EFT and cue saliency methods can enhance PM performance, no research had directly compared their effects, underlying mechanisms, or the influence of PM type and executive functions.

In this latest study, Dr. YANG Tianxiao and colleagues from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted two experiments involving 126 children aged 8 to 12 years each. 

Experiment 1 investigated the effects of EFT and cue saliency on event-based PM using trial-based, game-like computer tasks set within real-life scenarios, while also exploring how executive function components influenced performance. Experiment 2 applied similar methods to examine time-based PM.

Their findings revealed that salient cues significantly improved both time-based and event-based PM by facilitating the automatic retrieval of PM intentions. Salient time cues also reshaped children's time-monitoring strategies, helping them reallocate attention more efficiently from timekeeping to ongoing activities.

In contrast, EFT failed to enhance performance in either PM type, indicating a need to optimize guidance for more effective construction of future episodic scenarios. Notably, children's shifting ability moderated the effect of cue saliency on time-based PM: those with lower shifting ability derived greater benefits from salient cues, as external cues served as more critical retrieval aids for memory processes.

Taken together, these findings indicate superiority of cue saliency over EFT in boosting children's PM, providing schools and parents with evidence-based strategies to enhance self-management skills. By demonstrating how environmental cues can automate memory retrieval, the research offers practical implications for educational interventions aimed at supporting children's cognitive development.

This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund (Education) of China and the National Education Sciences Planning Schemes of China.