Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Why intentions slip at the moment they are due, and how to tie an action to a cue that is specific, met, distinctive and close.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will turn a vague intention into an intention card, test a cue on four questions, and choose the cue most likely to bring the action back in time.
You already remember to do things all the time: you take the bins out, you call someone back, you buy milk on the way home. Now and then an intention slips, and you remember it an hour too late. This course looks at why that happens and at plans that make it happen less. It is practice with invented scenes. It is optional, it sits alongside any care you already have, and it does not measure your memory. Anything new or changing in your memory belongs with your own clinicians.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Prospective memory | Remembering to do something in the future, at the right moment. |
| Intention | Something you plan to do later, such as mailing a card. |
| Cue | A thing you will meet later (a place, an object, an event, an alarm) that brings the intention back. |
| Monitoring | Keeping an intention in mind and checking for the moment, which takes effort. |
| Intention card | A short written plan: the action, the cue, and where the cue will be met. |
The aid for this lesson is a card or a line in a notebook with three parts.
Read together, the card makes one sentence: when I pass Mr. Ruiz's door on the way to the mailbox, I will hand back the dish. Writing the card takes a minute. It moves the work of remembering from later, when you are busy, to now, when you have time to think.
Prospective memory is remembering to do something later. Every intention has two parts. One is what to do: post the card, return the dish. That part is rarely the trouble. Ask someone who forgot to post a card what they meant to do, and they know at once. The other part is remembering that it is due, at the one moment it can be done. That is the part that slips.
Researchers Mark McDaniel and Gilles Einstein (2000) describe two ways an intention comes back. You can monitor: keep it in mind and keep checking. That works, but it takes effort, and other work slows while you do it (Smith, 2003, measured this in the laboratory). Or a cue can bring it back: you see the mailbox, and the card comes to mind with little effort. The second way works best when the cue is distinctive and is part of what you are already paying attention to.
So the plan is not to try harder to remember. It is to choose the cue in advance, one you will really meet, and to tie the action to it.
Another way: picture
Think of a hook on the wall by the mailbox. You hang the intention on it today. Tomorrow you walk past, the hook catches your eye, and the intention is waiting there. Without the hook, the intention is loose in your pocket, and it has to be fished out at the right moment.
Another way: steps
A cue does its job only if it passes four tests.
| Test | The question | A cue that fails it |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | Is it one particular thing or moment? | later, sometime tomorrow |
| Met | Will I really come across it? | at the gym, in a week with no gym |
| Distinctive | Will it stand out from the rest of the day? | when I see my phone |
| Close | Can the action be done when it happens? | when I wake up, for a call due at 5 p.m. |
Distinctive is the test people skip. A cue met twenty times a day, like the kitchen or the phone, turns into background. You pass it without the intention coming back. The best cues are a little unusual: a particular door, a particular stop, the first moment of a meeting.
Close matters because a cue that comes too early leaves you holding the intention again. Waking up may remind you of the 5 p.m. call, and then you have to carry it all day.
Sometimes nothing in the day lines up with the action. Then you make a cue. A phone alarm with the action written in it is a made cue. So is a note on the front door, or the book left on the car seat. The next lessons look at made cues in detail: alarms for jobs tied to a time, and objects placed where you cannot miss them. For now, the rule is the same for natural and made cues. Pass the four tests, and write the action with the cue, so that meeting the cue tells you what to do, not just that something is due.
The United States Postal Service says First-Class Mail usually takes 1 to 5 days to arrive. Suppose a fictional card must reach a friend by the 24th. Plan for the slow end: 24 − 5 = 19, so the card must be in the mail by the 19th. Keep one spare day for a missed pickup, and the mailing day is the 18th.
Now choose the cue. Remember to mail it on the 18th passes none of the tests on its own: nothing on the 18th will say now. A better cue is one met on that day. Suppose the route to the bus goes past a blue collection box. Every USPS collection box shows its pickup times on a label, so check that the last pickup comes after you pass. The card becomes: Action: post the card. Cue: the blue box by the bus stop. When: the morning of the 18th. Put the card itself by your keys that morning, and the plan has two cues working together.
Treating forgetting as a lack of effort. Missing an intention is usually a cue that never came, not a failure of will. The fix is a better cue.
Choosing a cue met all day. When I'm home feels safe because it is certain to happen. It is so common that it does not stand out, so it seldom brings the intention back.
Writing the cue without the action. A note that only says Tuesday! tells you something is due and not what. Write both.
Write the action in a few words.
Action: return the ladder to Pat.
The action goes on the card first, so the cue is chosen to fit it.
Find when the action can be done.
Pat is home on Saturday mornings; the ladder fits in the car.
A cue is useful only at a moment when the action is possible.
Name one cue met at that moment.
Cue: backing out of the driveway on Saturday for the farmers market.
Pat's street is on the way to the market, so the cue comes with the ladder in reach.
Test the cue and write the card.
Specific yes, met yes, distinctive yes, close yes. When I back out for the market on Saturday, I load the ladder and drop it at Pat's.
It passes all four tests, so it goes on the card as one sentence.
Read the first plan and test it.
Call the plumber when I get a chance: specific no, met no, distinctive no, close no.
A chance is not a thing you meet, so it fails every test.
Find when the call can be made.
The office answers 8 a.m. to noon; the lunch break at work starts at 11:30.
The cue has to fall inside the hours the call can go through.
Pick a distinctive moment in that window.
Cue: sitting down on the bench outside at 11:30 for lunch.
The bench is one particular place, met every workday, and the office is still open.
Write the new card.
When I sit on the bench at 11:30, I call the plumber before I eat.
The action is joined to the cue, so meeting the bench says what to do.
Write the action.
Action: sign the field-trip slip and put it in the backpack.
The action comes first so the cue can fit it.
Find the moment and a cue met then.
Evenings at home; cue: unpacking the lunch box after school.
Unpacking happens every school day, it is a clear moment, and the backpack is right there.
Test the cue and write the card.
A fictional week. Ana borrowed a casserole dish from her neighbor, Mr. Ruiz, and wants to give it back. She walks past his door every morning on her way to the mailbox. Which cue is strongest?
A fictional card must arrive by day 26 of the month. The USPS says First-Class Mail takes 1 to 5 days. Complete the plan, keeping one spare day.
Take the longest delivery time from the arrival day.
26 − 5 = a
Planning for the slowest delivery means the card is on time whatever happens in the mail.
Take one spare day off that.
latest mailing day − 1 = b
A spare day covers a missed pickup or a busy morning.
Tie the mailing to a cue met on that day.
When I pass the blue collection box on the way to the bus, I post the card.
The box is on the route, it stands out, and the card can go in right then.
Each fictional cue below fails one of the four tests. Match each cue to the test it fails.
| Not specific | Not met | Not distinctive | Not close to the action | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sometime tomorrow | ||||
| At the gym, in a week with no gym visits | ||||
| When I look at my phone | ||||
| When I wake up, for a call due at 5 p.m. |
A fictional plan. Ben must drop a signed form at the school office, which is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. He drives past it on the school run at 8:15 every weekday. Rate each cue on the four tests.
| Cue | Specific? | Met? | Distinctive? | Close to the action? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When I pull up at the school at 8:15 | ||||
| On Saturday morning | ||||
| When I open the kitchen drawer |
A fictional errand. Dee wants to buy stamps. The post office is next to her Tuesday bus stop, and it is open while she waits there. Cue A: *when I step off the bus on Tuesday at the post office stop*. Cue B: *when I have a free moment*. How many of the four tests does each cue pass?
Cue A passes a tests. Cue B passes b tests.
Somewhere new: a fictional workplace. Kim needs to ask a coworker, Raj, to sign a vacation form. Raj is at the Monday 9 a.m. team meeting and works from home the rest of the week. For each cue, is it met, and can Kim ask Raj right then?
| Cue | Met? | Can ask then? |
|---|---|---|
| When the Monday meeting ends | ||
| When I eat lunch on Wednesday | ||
| When I see Raj in the office on Friday |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional errand. Lou must return a library book. The library's book drop is beside the grocery store he shops at every Thursday evening. Rate each cue: is it distinctive, and is it close to the action?
| Cue | Distinctive? | Close to the action? |
|---|---|---|
| When I park at the grocery store on Thursday | ||
| When I turn on the TV |
Pick one thing you mean to do this week and write its intention card: action, cue, when and where. Test the cue on the four questions. Next: jobs tied to a clock time, and why they are harder. This is optional practice alongside any care you receive, not treatment and not a test of memory. If anything about your memory is new or changing, tell your own clinicians. Stopping is always allowed: close the page, and the lesson reopens where you left it.
12. Your turn: a permission slip for school, step 3
Specific yes, met yes, distinctive yes, close yes. When I unpack the lunch box, I sign the slip and zip it into the backpack.
All four tests pass, so the plan is one sentence joining cue and action.