The present thesis investigated the role of the prospective and retrospective component for prospective memory development in adolescents, young and old adults, using a combination of behavioral and neurophysiological measures. In sum, the results showed that both components contribute to prospective memory development across the lifespan. The prospective component—which is implied in cue detection—was mainly responsible for age differences during intention initiation. Adolescents showed higher distraction whereas old adults showed reduced attentional sensitivity during cue detection. The retrospective component was less relevant for intention retrieval and primarily influenced the phases of encoding and retention. Especially the efficiency of intention encoding seemed to be a key mechanism in explaining age differences across the lifespan. Furthermore, the present findings emphasized the role of post-retrieval processes for age-related differences and provided a neural signature for each phase of prospective remembering that helps to understand the rise and fall of prospective memory.