Effects of Locus of Control and Task Complexity on Prospective Remembering

Abstract

High school students were divided into two groups (internals and externals) by a median split of scores on the personality dimension, locus of control. While performing an intensive intervening activity, participants were required to remember to perform a planned action at specified times. In addition, two situational variables were manipulated. One variable was difficulty of intervening task---either simple or complex. The other variable was type of memory activity---either habitual (structured) or episodic (unstructured). ANOVA main effects showed better performance for simple tasks and habitual memory structure. However, all two-way interactions were significant, thus qualifying the main effects as a consequence of the interaction of the two situational variables with the personality variable and with each other