The Effect of Impulsivity Traits on Commission Errors of Prospective Memory

Repeated execution of a prospective memory (PM) task that has already been completed is known as a commission error of the PM. Due to defects in attentional impulsiveness and motor impulsiveness, impulsive individuals may differ from non-impulsive individuals when making PM commission errors. This study explored the effect of impulsivity traits on PM commission errors under different ongoing task difficulties (Experiment 1) and different response conveniences (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 1 showed that the impulsive group had more PM commission errors than the non-impulsive group under both the low-difficulty condition and the high-difficulty condition, indicating that the effect of impulsivity traits on PM commission errors is not affected by the difficulty of ongoing tasks. However, the results of Experiment 2 showed that the impulsive group only had more PM commission errors than the non-impulsive group under the convenient response condition, indicating that the effect of impulsivity traits on PM commission errors is affected by the response convenience.