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Prospective memory failure is when someone makes a plan to do something and puts themselves in the situation to start that plan, but then get distracted or overwhelmed by other things. And they never end up doing what they originally intended to do.

Examples:

  • A person plans to send an email right away, but opens their email and gets distracted by other emails. Three hours later, the email is still not sent.

  • A person plans to talk to a doctor about an issue and goes to the doctor, but then gets distracted by other conversations with the doctor, and forgets to ask about the specific issue that took them there.

  • An individual plans to buy eggs, goes to the market intending to buy them, and buys lots of other things but forgets to buy the eggs.

What it is not: