The Influence of Short-Video Usage on Prospective Memory Under Different Cue Type Conditions

Short-form videos are online content designed for fragmented mobile viewing, with typical durations of 3 s to 5 min. This consumption pattern disrupts attention—a critical resource for prospective memory (PM)—the ability to remember intended future actions. Therefore, short-form video use may negatively affect PM performance. This study examined this effect and its underlying cognitive mechanisms through two experiments. Study 1 adopted a 2 (group: experimental group, control group) × 2 (cue type: focal, non-focal) between-subjects design, recruiting 106 college students to explore the impact of short-form video use on PM with different cue types. The experimental group watched short videos before the experiment, while the control group viewed long videos. Study 2 further reduced the number of cues for the non-focal PM task, recruiting 64 college students to examine the effect of short-form videos on non-focal PM under a single-cue condition. The results showed that prolonged viewing of short-form videos significantly reduced the accuracy of both focal and non-focal PM, but had no significant impact on the ongoing task. When the number of PM cues was reduced to one, the detrimental effect of short-form videos on non-focal PM weakened. These findings indicate that the impairment of PM by short-form videos depends on the attentional demands of the task, and a single cue can resist such impairment by reducing attentional consumption.