In a habitual prospective memory task, an intention must be performed regularly and frequently in response to a particular event. Everyday examples include flushing the toilet after use, closing the door when leaving the flat, or taking medication according to a prescription scheme. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of habitual prospective memory in a series of ERP-experiments. The main result is that when a task becomes habitual, the prospective positivity, an ERP-component related to the ease of retrieval is enhanced. Thus, with repeated retrieval the prospective memory task may be integrated into the ongoing task. In general, the results indicate that episodic and habitual prospective memory tasks differ in their neural underpinnings.
