The Relational Self-Schema Measure: Assessing Psychological Needs in Multiple Self-with-Other Representations.

Modern self-schema theory posits multiple representations in memory of the self, with each individual self-schema possessing associative connections to relational contexts (i.e., self-with-other).

Age-related differences in the goals and concerns that motivate real-life prospective memory tasks.

Prospective memory tasks are tasks that one must remember to perform in the future, such as keeping a dentist appointment or locking the door when leaving home. There has been little research to date on the question of what motivates real-life prospective memory tasks, and this is true both generally and within the subfield of aging and prospective memory. In the current study, we investigated whether the prospective memory tasks of younger and older adults were motivated by different personal goals and concerns, a question that has not been addressed in past research.

Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults.

There has been little research on variables that affect importance ratings for real prospective memory tasks (e.g., remembering to take medications).

Age-related differences in goals: testing predictions from selection, optimization, and compensation theory and socioemotional selectivity theory.

Two prominent theories of lifespan development, socioemotional selectivity theory and selection, optimization, and compensation theory, make similar predictions for differences in the goal representations of younger and older adults. Our purpose was to test whether the goals of younger and older adults differed in ways predicted by these two theories. Older adults and two groups of younger adults (college students and non-students) listed their current goals, which were then coded by independent raters.

Social motivation in prospective memory: higher importance ratings and reported performance rates for social tasks.

Few studies have addressed social motivation in prospective memory (PM). In a pilot study and two main studies, we examined whether social PM tasks possess a motivational advantage over nonsocial PM tasks. In the pilot study and Study 1, participants listed their real-life important and less important PM tasks.

Free recall of everyday retrospective and prospective memories: the intention-superiority effect is moderated by action versus state orientation and by gender.

Individual differences in the relative accessibility of everyday memories were investigated. Based on the theory of action control described by Kuhl and colleagues (Kuhl and Beckmann, 1994b), an intention-superiority effect (heightened activation and accessibility of intentions--i.e.