Interview with Jack Meacham (page 2)

Ray: I guess I think that even in retrospective memory there is still someone getting the message, so taking that memory and trying to accommodate it with a future plan of action is somewhat similar, but also uncertain. In other words what one has done in the past, may not work in the future, but it still provides the basis for future action. Does that seem contrary to what you're saying? I hope not.

Jack: Episodic and prospective remembering: In my 1975 paper, reprinted as a chapter in Neisser's 1982 book, I wrote: "Two major categories of prospective remembering which ought to be distinguished, however, may be termed 'habitual' and 'episodic.' In the case of habitual remembering, the activity is one which is routinely engaged in--e.g., remembering to brush one's teeth before going to bed at night. . . . Episodic remembering, on the other hand, involves an action which is performed either infrequently or on an irregular basis, so that the performance of the action is dependent upon remembering to carry out the action--e.g., buying bread on the way home from work. Of course, whether a particular activity is said to involve episodic or habitual remembering can depend on the success of the individual in routinizing the activity. . . . "

In short, I agree with what you write about the overlap in the
constructs of episodic and prospective.

You likely know that some people have questioned the distinction between retrospective and prospective memory/remembering--there are some articles and book chapters. So (point of what I just wrote) I see where you are going (in your paragraph about remembering messages, etc. For some examples, the distinction between retrospective and prospective is quite clear, but for others less so. I think my chapter on "interpersonal relations and prospective remembering" (listed in the first message) was my last effort to drive home the distinction, as I
knew by then that some people were questioning it.

Ray: I also agree that there is a difference between the kinds of actions that have become habituated and somewhat irregular actions that take more effort to remember to do. Basically what I'm focusing on is the terminology, what has/hasn't changed, and what researchers are writing about more. For example, in cognitive linguistics if a person were to take a strong position on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis then he/she is called a crackpot, but if it's framed in terms of language habits then it's ok.

The distinction between retrospective and prospective memory/remembering is an important one and I'm not sure that my point is to blur the line between them. I'll definitely read the chapter you referenced, "interpersonal relations and prospective remembering". What I'm curious about is what is different when a person thinks about the past versus the future. Does that involve the same memory process, except for the future it involves some uncertainty and possibly anxiety?

Jack: If you to explore memory in a social context, then I think that my latest (now old) chapter would be _very_ helpful for you (the chapter on interpersonal relations that we've been discussing).

Along the same lines: Although I was heavily into cognitive psychology as a graduate student, my main orientation has been as a developmental psychologist. So when I think about memory, I want to consider what memory is like for an infant, a toddler, a child, an adolescent, etc. I could be critical of much of cognitive psychology, for constructing models of adult cognition that pose tremendous problems when one tries to consider how such models might develop in an infant or child (and so are unlikely to really be valid models of human memory).

To get more specific: I've thought for many years that the emphasis in the discipline of psychology upon memory as primarily (or entirely) a matter of recall of information from the past could be very misplaced, in terms of our efforts to gain a comprehensive understanding of memory. Sure, for professors giving lectures and for students taking SAT's and other exams and for contestants on TV quiz shows, memory might be primarily a matter of recalling information from the past.

But for an infant or a toddler, memory may be related much more to actions in the present and the future. I doubt that, before kids begin school, parents devote very much time to training their kids' retrospective memory. OK, perhaps learn the alphabet or learn some songs or learn your address and phone number. In contrast, I believe that parents spend a LOT of time focusing on their kids' prospective remembering--remember to brush your teeth, take your teddy to bed, pick up your toys, say good night, wash your hands, say hello when you meet your grandparents, close the door when you go out, use a napkin, feed the cat, turn off the TV, look before crossing the street, flush the toilet, etc. Parents might not phrase these tasks as memory tasks (that is, they might not use the phrase "remember to"), but they are certainly giving their kids instructions about actions to perform in the future and the kids then have to remember to carry out these actions with minimal (at the beginning) or no (later) parental prompts in order to please their parents. In short, prospective remembering.

So rather than treat prospective memory as a topic of rather narrow importance, sort of on the side of the great wealth of traditional studies of memory as retrospection, I could suggest inverting the importance of these two. In my conception, it would be prospective memory--remembering for the sake of future action--that is foundational
in human memory, especially in the first half-dozen years or so. Only later, about the time that formal schooling (or apprenticeship, etc.) begins, around age 5 or 6, does retrospective remembering become important. So the conceptual question and the research questions would be to ask, how does the tremendous ability that adult humans have for retrospective recall grow out of the foundational ability for prospective memory?

Commenting on what you wrote below: So (continuing with what's above), I wouldn't say the difference is uncertainty or anxiety; I would say that prospective remembering is more interpersonal, social; and retrospective remembering is more individualistic, asocial. See my chapter for more.

Ray: Yes, I understand your orientation as a developmental psychologist, and I admit that I have only read a little bit about how children learn to talk about the past, present, and future. Actually the only bit I know is from reading a few papers or a book chapter by Katherine Nelson, where she wrote that an infant first gains a sense of self in the present and then later learns about the past and the future. I agree with you that retrospective memory in adults grows out of prospective memory. That makes sense intuitively, and I'll have to read some more about it and give it more
thought.

Thanks for the help. It's been very nice emailing with you! very nice emailing with you!

Interview with Jack Meacham

The following is a Q&A with a prominent professor of developmental psychology, John ("Jack") Meacham, who retired from SUNY-Buffalo in 2006. The interview is spanned over two separate posts for readability reasons. The interview can also be downloaded from the sidebar as a word document, MeachamInterview_07.doc.

Ray: Recently I have been looking up the origin of the construct of prospective memory, and who coined this term. The earliest publication I could find is your article with Jennifer Dumitru in 1976 entitled Prospective Remembering and External Retrieval Cues. Who would you say coined this term and what could you tell me about its origin?

Jack: I coined the term "prospective remembering" in 1973 or 1974. I had earned my doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan in 1972 and was then a new assistant professor at the University at Buffalo--The State University of New York. Burt Leiman was an undergraduate psychology student at the time. He later earned his doctorate in psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Our first (and only) study together was reported as a paper at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Chicago in 1975:

Meacham, J. A., & Leiman, B. Remembering to perform future actions. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, September 1975.

I was pleased that Burt, on his own, traveled from Buffalo to Chicago for the paper presentation. But I was disappointed and embarassed that only a few people attended our paper session. It turned out that our paper session had been scheduled very late in the afternoon, around 5:00, at the same time that APA had scheduled various social hours for people to gather for drinks and conversation.

I tried two or three times through 1975 and 1976 to get this paper published in one of the psychology journals, but without success. I can see that the paper is not great--it was merely a first step. But I also think that the journal editors were concerned about publishing a paper on a topic that they had never heard about before.

Meanwhile, with other students, I completed several other studies on prospective remembering. One of these is the article with Jennifer Dumitru, that you mentioned, in the Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology. Jennifer was an undergraduate student.

Another was:

Meacham, J. A., & Singer, J. Incentive effects in prospective remembering. Journal of Psychology, 1977, 97, 191-197. Jeff Singer earned his doctorate at the University at Buffalo and is now living in the Washington, DC area.

And:

Meacham, J. A., & Colombo, J. External retrieval cues facilitate prospective remembering in children. Journal of Educational Research, 1980, 73, 299-301. John Colombo also earned a doctorate in psychology, I think at the University at Buffalo, and has been working at the University of Kansas.

And:

Meacham, J. A., & Kushner, S. Anxiety, prospective remembering, and performance of planned actions. Journal of General Psychology, 1980, 103, 203-209. Susan Kushner was an undergraduate student.

Around this time came my lucky break! Ulric Neisser, a well-known cognitive psychologist (his book [Cognitive Psychology (1969)] helped define the field of cognitive psychology and was one of my main texts as a graduate student) asked if he ould reprint the 1975 APA paper in an edited book that he was preparing:

Meacham, J. A., & Leiman, B. Remembering to perform future actions. In Ulric Neisser (Ed.), Memory observed: Remembering in natural contexts. San Francisco: Freeman, 1982. Pages 327-336.

There is a footnote on the first page noting the 1975 convention presentation.

I think that the first paragraph of this book chapter, which would likely be the same (or quite similar) to the 1975 paper, has my initial ideas about "prospective remembering:"

"In remembering, one engages in various cognitive activities in order to reconstruct information that was known in the past. Not infrequently, such information has implications for actions to be performed in the future, such as stopping at the store on the way home, or keeping an appointment with the dentist. Remembering which involves such implications can be termed 'prospective remembering' and can be distinguished from 'retrospective remembering,' which is concerned solely with the recall of information about the past. For example, in order to deliver a message one must remember not only the message (retrospective) but also to seek out the person for whom the message is intended and to deliver the message (prospective)."

There are another half dozen paragraphs in this 1975/1982 paper in which I talk my way through this new idea, prospective remembering. So this chapter in Neisser's book would likely be your key source as far as indicating how I conceived of "prospective remembering" in 1975.

Well, Neisser's book was a huge hit! And this was the endorsement from a senior, well-respected psychologist and researcher that the new idea of "prospective remembering" needed. Right away, many people were conducting studies and using the term "prospective remembering" or "prospective memory."

About this time, I published an article in which I tried to put prospective remembering into a somewhat broader context:

Meacham, J. A. A note on remembering to execute planned actions. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1982, 3, 121-133.

And I did the same somewhat later, from a different perspective, trying to link the construct of prospective remembering to the work of the philosopher John R. Searle. I had just read his book "Expression and meaning."

Meacham, J. A. Interpersonal relations and prospective remembering. In M. M. Gruneberg, P. Morris, and R. N.Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (Vol. 1). London: Wiley, 1988. Pp. 354-359.

I should note that during this period of the 1970's there were a few other researchers who were publishing articles that might be considered to fall under the umbrella of "prospective remembering," although initially they were not using this term: John Flavell and Steve Ceci in the United States, and A. D. Baddeley and A. Wilkins in Great Britain. But I didn't learn of any of their work until after I had completed several of my own studies.

Although I likely haven't cited it consistently, there is one book that I think was often on my mind as a graduate student in the late 1960's and that I was likely still thinking about as I was considering my first studies of prospective remembering:

Miller, George A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, Karl H. Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960.

See, in particular, their notion of TOTE schemas. TOTE is the acronym for test-operate-test-exit.

There's not a direct connection between TOTE and prospective remembering; I'm just saying this was likely part of the context within which I was thinking that might not be fully reflected in the reference lists for my articles.

You might also notice that in my articles (and also in this message) I've tended to say "prospective remembering," rather than "prospective memory." This reflects the influence of my dissertation advisor, J. David Birch, who was at the University of Michigan for many years and in the 1970's moved to the University of Illinois. Birch had been working with John Atkinson on a motivational theory ("The Dynamics of Action") that emphasized, as you can see by the title of their book, action or
activity. By extension, in thinking about memory, it made sense to think of memory not as a "thing" or "place" in the brain, but instead as something that people do, that is, the action or activity of "remembering."

If you are interested, there is a brief bio of me on the psychology department website at the University at Buffalo. I retired in December, 2006. I'm now living in Eugene, Oregon.

Prospective memory: A new construct?

It seems that prospective memory has been given new life, at least according to what I've been reading. Briefly, prospective memory, as coined by Meacham (1975) refers to the ability to remember something that a person plans to do in the future, such as picking up some beer on the way home from work. Alan Baddeley also said that research on prospective memory was picking up in his book, The Psychology of Memory, in 1976. I wanted to know if it was just me noticing it more and more in my literature reviews or if there was an actual trend. The following describes a new method for investigating social trends in cognitive psychology and cognitive science, and what I found on the use of the common theoretical memory constructs, namely semantic, episodic, and prospective memory.

If I had to take a guess at what is going on sociologically in cognitive psychology and cognitive science, I would say that investigating semantic memory is getting pretty old. As I understand it, semantic memory is an ungrounded, abstract, amodal symbol network. With research in embodied cognition growing in popularity it seems that research on semantic memory might be leveling off. Secondly, episodic memory has been more accepted over the last decade as a construct that is at least grounded in experience. I would expect the number of publications, conferences, chapters, and books to increase over that time. Third, I think that the concept of prospective memory has been gaining in popularity as shown by the greater quantity of literature. Lastly, it seems that authors are no longer pitting episodic memory against semantic memory in their publications, but may be talking about the similarity between episodic and prospective memory. My own work shows that remembering an episode in the past is a similar process to thinking about a similar event planned for the future. I predict that if there had been a rise in publications on episodic memory that a similar increase in work on prospective memory would be found.

Methods
I used the database PsycINFO to collect search results for the keywords semantic, episodic, and prospective memory from 1994-2006 limiting results to the area of the social sciences. I stopped at 1994 because there are only 44 results for prospective memory prior to 1994 (PsycINFO goes back to 1984).

Results
PsycINFO breaks down the results to journal articles, peer reviewed journal articles, conferences, chapters/essays, books, dissertations, book reviews, reports, and other. In order to get a general measure of what keyword is getting the most press I used the total number of results in my line graph (Graph 1). As shown in Graph 1, the number of results increases sharply for episodic memory since 1994, surpassing semantic memory after 1999. Also as predicted semantic memory seems to have leveled off since 2003. Prospective memory seems to be more visible in the literature in the last few years and the slope between 2005-2006 looks similar to that of episodic memory.

Graph 1


Discussion
These results show the growing number of publications and related press given to episodic memory and prospective memory since 2004 compared to the leveling off of work on semantic memory. It is not clear from these data that authors are investigating the similarity between episodic and prospective memory, but it is curious that the slopes resemble one another so closely.

General Discussion
The data presented here show that the trend in cognitive psychology and cognitive science is to write up research in terms of episodic memory and increasingly so for prospective memory. Published research and related press on semantic memory, while still higher in number than prospective memory, has leveled off since 2004.

Google trends could also be used to explore what people are searching for and it even breaks searches down by country and city. Psychological constructs, however, are not searched for enough to get a trend using this method. Further researchers may be able to automate the process of mining PsycINFO, Google trends, or other databases to look for trends in the way that people write about, search for, and maybe even talk about key terms. Through these methods it is possible to find out where research is going.

One of the limitations with this method, as with most qualitative research, is that these preliminary findings do not explain why there is a trend, only that one exists. Alan Baddeley, Martin Conway, and John Aggleton published a book on episodic memory in 2002, and that could have been the impetus for the sharp increase in related research. However, even if it generated a lot of research, an experiment would have to be done to support a causal link.

Update on my Planned Educational Leave

I had hoped to update regularly as I am likely trailblazing the possibility of training in other areas of the planet, which I am sure others in SSHA would like to do, but I am a bit grounded at the moment. Here is what I have found out so far. Basically if, as a graduate student at UC-Merced, you would like to broaden your horizons then you can fill out a form and leave for up to one year by filling out a PELP form and paying a $40 fee. Unfortunately, unlike some other universities, a graduate student in the UC system cannot get financial aid (i.e., student loans) while on leave. Some people might say, "Well duh!", but actually Cornell University permit financial aid for graduate students on leave. Further, universities in the EU will actually pay (not just allow the borrowing of money) for graduate students to travel and stay at other universities, which is separate from the amount of money allocated for them to attend academic conferences.

It is important that universities realize that they cannot provide all of the courses/training opportunities that are necessary for graduate students. For example, multilevel modeling is something that I need to know about, and I would not expect that UC-Merced would be able to provide this class. However, the opportunity to drive 4 hours to UC-Davis once a week is not an optimal solution as some argued for last semester (and many more argued against!). Taking a semester or two to visit another university should be a welcomed plan for some graduate students in the UC system. It builds bridges between UC-Merced and other institutions and make further collaborations possible. I cannot think of a university that would not like more international publicity.

Although I was not expecting free money from the university to fund my research abroad this year, I did expect to be able to borrow from the US Department of Education. So my research is a bit grounded at the moment, but I'll figure something out and keep you all posted.