Keynotes
We are thrilled to announce that Matthias Kliegel, Sam Gilbert, Giovanna Mioni and Julie Bugg will give the keynote speeches at the International Conference on Prospective Memory 2026.
Speakers and abstracts are listed in the order of presentation. Information on final titles and abstracts will be available soon.
Matthias Kliegel
University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland)
Development of Prospective Memory Across the Lifespan
Prospective memory (PM) shows one of the most complex developmental trajectories of any memory system. Across the lifespan, PM follows a multidirectional course shaped by changing interactions between episodic memory, executive control, metacognition, and task environments. In this keynote, I provide an integrative lifespan account of PM development that goes beyond age comparisons to focus on why different PM components rise, stabilize, and decline at different phases of life.
Drawing on cross-sectional, longitudinal, experimental, and naturalistic evidence, I argue that developmental change in PM is best understood as a phase-specific mismatch between task demands and available cognitive resources. During childhood, improvements in PM are primarily driven by growth in the retrospective component, supported by advances in episodic memory and strategic encoding. In contrast, age-related decline in adulthood and aging is largely attributable to changes in the prospective component, reflecting reduced attentional control and self-initiated retrieval, particularly in laboratory settings with high monitoring demands.
I then address one of the field’s most enduring puzzles: the age–prospective memory paradox. Recent evidence suggests that this paradox is not merely methodological, but reflects developmental shifts in metacognitive monitoring and control, enabling older adults to compensate in everyday contexts despite laboratory deficits. New paradigms integrating laboratory tasks, naturalistic assessments, experience sampling, and passive digital biomarkers illustrate how PM is enacted (and supported) outside the lab.
Finally, I discuss implications for theory, assessment, and intervention, highlighting PM as a model system for studying adaptive cognition across the lifespan and as a key target for maintaining autonomy and functional independence in aging societies.
Sam Gilbert
University College London (London, United Kingdom)
Cognitive Offloading, Metacognition, and Prospective Memory
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Giovanna Mioni
University of Padova (Padova, Italy)
The Effect of Monitoring Behavior and Time Perception on Time-Based
Prospective Memory
Time-based prospective memory refers to the ability to perform a prospective action at a precise moment in the future, either after a specific interval (to turn off the oven in 5 min) or at a specific time (remember your appointment with the doctor at 4 pm). Although the label time-based evokes some involvement of temporal abilities in time-based PM performance, few studies have investigated the contributions of temporal abilities that may be involved in performing time-based PM tasks. It is not only requiring participants to perform an action every 30 seconds or at a specific time (e.g., at 4 pm) that made the time-based PM task time-related. Time perception is expected to be involved in clock-checking behaviour and in the monitoring strategies that participants utilised to get to that target. Examining monitoring strategies, and in particular monitoring frequency, closer to the target time may show the time-related processes involved in time-based PM tasks. In this presentation, I will introduce some models of time perception and some studies that have investigated the link between time perception and time-based prospective memory.
Julie M. Bugg
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
New Insights on Strategic Monitoring in Prospective Memory
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