Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember to initiate or
to execute at the right time an action one has planned to do. This ability
is critical for human adaptation to the environment and people rely on
this type of memory every day. One must remember an appointment
at a particular time, or must remember to take amedicine daily just before
having dinner. Prospective memory is thus crucial for maintaining
autonomy in the elderly. This is one of the many reasons why for
more than two decades a great number of studies have been investigating
the effect of aging on those mental processes that are brought into
playwhen a person is to remember that s/he has to take a certain action
at a particular time in the future.