ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
External memory aid: an intention recorded outside memory
In their review of intention offloading, Gilbert and colleagues describe physical and digital tools outside a person's own memory that carry prompts for intended future actions. [1]
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
This page uses external memory aid as the category label for those supports. It concerns where an intention is represented, not a claim that an aid compensates for a condition or that one format works for everyone. A calendar entry, a paper note, and an alert are formats to discuss, not products endorsed here.
Returning the borrowed telescope
In this fictional household, Imani has borrowed a small telescope from a friend and intends to return it at the next astronomy club gathering. She puts the return intention in her personal calendar. Separately, she adds a line to the household whiteboard asking that the padded case remain available.
The calendar item carries Imani's future intention. The whiteboard line communicates a request about a shared object. Neither entry transfers responsibility to her partner to watch for the event or ensure the return.
Before the gathering, the friend says they will be away that evening and offers another return date. Imani can change the calendar entry. The point of the scene is to identify the recorded intention and its owner, not to demonstrate improved remembering.
Describe the aid before choosing it
For a low-stakes arrangement like this one, an optional “aid description” can answer four ordinary questions: What intention is being recorded? Where will the record be kept? Who can see or change it? What should happen when the intention changes?
Imani's description might read: “Return the telescope; personal calendar; edited by Imani; replace the date after agreeing with its owner.” No memory score or clinical explanation is needed to write that sentence.
A reader can choose a paper record, an existing digital tool, or no new arrangement. This page does not ask anyone to buy an app, establish a daily tracking routine, or enter private health information into a shared service.
A family member is not a feature
A partner may agree to leave a case accessible while declining reminder duty. A parent could help a child choose which school-project dates belong on a shared calendar, while leaving private notes elsewhere. A sibling's device should not be enrolled into alerts for another person's task without agreement.
If someone wants another person to send a reminder, that is an additional request with its own permission and limits. It should not be hidden inside the phrase “memory aid.” The other person can say what they can reasonably take on.
Keep category and promise separate
Use this entry for the broad category of external supports for an intention. A particular reminder is one concrete prompt. Retrieval cue has a different focus in this glossary: prompting information about something previously encountered, rather than recording a future action.
The review also discusses experiments and possible applications. This page does not generalize those outcomes to Imani, children, ADHD, or a reader's household. No source task, figure, or intervention is reproduced. Calling something an aid describes its intended role here; it is not evidence that the arrangement will achieve its purpose.
Source
[1] Gilbert SJ, Boldt A, Sachdeva C, Scarampi C, Tsai PC. Outsourcing Memory to External Tools: A Review of ‘Intention Offloading’. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2023;30:60–76. Published online July 5, 2022. doi: 10.3758/s13423-022-02139-4. Accessed September 6, 2026, Introduction, with the UCL full text. Supports [1] only; no efficacy or clinical claim adopted.
Related guides
Sources and what they support
These sources support the specific statements identified below. Our practical exercises are suggestions to consider, not evidence of a treatment effect.
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Outsourcing Memory to External Tools: A Review of ‘Intention Offloading’ — Springer Nature — Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Source type: professional reference.
Published . Accessed .
Source check, September 6, 2026: Scoped source check. Passage: Introduction, paragraphs identifying external props/tools and defining intention offloading; UCL full PDF page 2 and publisher full HTML Introduction. Limits: Adopted external intention-support category only, with Ready's scope label explicit. Does not generalize laboratory outcomes, developmental differences, clinical applications, effectiveness claims, or metacognitive interventions to households. The optional description is original, not a study procedure.
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02139-4.
Supports: In their review of intention offloading, Gilbert and colleagues describe physical and digital tools outside a person's own memory that carry prompts for intended future actions.
Correction check: Publisher heading, article dates, Introduction, additional information and rights/footer were inspected; no correction notice changing the adopted category appeared. No complete correction-database or downstream literature audit was performed.
Updates and corrections
Published .
Found a factual error or something unclear? Use the contact route on our Trust page. Read our research method for the evidence approach.