McDaniel, Mark A., and Einstein, Gilles O. Prospective Memory: An Overview and Synthesis of an Emerging Field. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007. 280 pp., ISBN 1412924693, $44.95.
IN PROSPECTIVE MEMORY, McDaniel and Einstein promise an overview and synthesis of an emerging research field. They deliver on that promise, and in addition provide readers with a window into a research area that tries to explain notable instances of real-world memory failures. Examples of the issues that McDaniel and Einstein address are the following: How is it possible that a devoted parent can forget to pick up a child at school, a skilled surgeon can forget an instrument inside a patient before ...