Experimental study demonstrates that search prioritization alters response criteria in searchers, indicating that higher sighting rates stem from liberal bias rather than memory maintenance.
When people are asked to help to search for a missing person their efforts to keep the intention to search in mind and their prioritization of the task can vary. We examine both variables in the current research. Participants completed a prospective person memory task that involved an unrelated ongoing task and a person search task. We manipulated task prioritization instructions (i.e., ongoing, search, or both) and the presence of the intention to search in working memory using focal (Experiment 1) and non‐focal (Experiment 2–3) tasks. Prioritization impacted response time to the ongoing task, and sighting rates (Experiment 2), due to participants prioritizing the search task having more liberal response bias than others. We found no effects of intention presence in working memory on task performance. We discuss implications for these findings in prospective memory and for missing and wanted person searches.
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Moore et al. (2026) studied this question.
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