The influence of strategic monitoring on the neural correlates of prospective memory

The influence of strategic monitoring on the neural correlates of prospective memory was examined in two experiments. Strategic monitoring was manipulated by varying the context in which prospective cues occurred, with the cues requiring a prospective response in one task context and not the other. The N300, associated with cue detection, and the prospective positivity, associated with postretrieval processes, were elicited by prospective hits and were not elicited by prospective misses or ignore prospective cues. A parietal old-new effect was elicited by prospective misses and ignore prospective cues. Together these findings indicate that strategic monitoring may be necessary for cue detection and the recruitment of postretrieval processes, but not the recognition of a prospective cue as an old item. These findings serve to refine strategic monitoring and automatic associative accounts of prospective memory.