Remembering to Behave Healthfully

We often intend to implement a healthful lifestyle behavior.  But following through is not always easy.  The complexities of life often intervene to distract or dissuade us from doing what we had intended.  Accordingly, psychologists have worked to discover what we can do to transform current intentions into future actions.  Rebekah E. Smith, Reed R. Hunt, and Amy E. Murray are three investigators who addressed the issue.  They specifically looked at the interactions among attention, memory, and adequate task completion.

Smith and her colleagues wondered how a future behavioral intention affects execution of an ongoing task and vice versa.  For instance, if the idea to call to schedule an annual physical exam occurs while one is completing an income tax return, he must continue to accurately calculate his taxes, register the intention to call for the exam, and later remember actually to make the call.  In short, there is considerable competition for his attention and action that will determine what gets done and how well.

Contextual issues proved to be important.  When the context of the ongoing activity (e.g., doing the taxes) supplied cues to the intended event (making an exam appointment), interference to the ongoing activity was minimal.  Conversely, when the context of the ongoing activity lacked cues to the intended event, interference was substantial.  The most important contextual cues occurred at points of transition during the ongoing activity.  In our example, after completing the income portion of his tax return and preparing to calculate medical expenses, one is more likely to remember to  make the exam call than when in the midst of doing either the income or expense portion.  Understandably, that reallocation of attention and action from tax completion to telephone calling comes at a  cost to the previously ongoing tax completion task.  Of course when one resumes the taxes, the task will require more attention and effort than if there had been no disruption to doing the taxes.

Since an ongoing activity usually consumes considerable attention, the Smith, Hunt, and Murray study underscored how important it is to anticipate when one must employ attention in order to achieve a desired goal.  The more that context promotes attention deployment, the better.  

To implement a healthful lifestyle change then, you must decide clearly what needs to be done. Second, you should imagine when the behavior will be executed..  Third, consider what usual ongoing behaviors are likely to interfere with your ability to remember the healthful lifestyle change at that time.  Fourth, plan how to fashion context relevant cues at a transition point in the ongoing task that actually enhances your ability to remember to implement your good intention.  And finally, ensure that you act expeditiously to execute the healthful behavior as soon as the context cue presents itself.

Reference:

Smith, R., Hunt, R., & Murray, A. (2017).  Prospective memory in context: Moving through a familiar space.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 43,2,

189-204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000303.