<p>The successful implementation of prospective memory (PM) holds significant practical importance in our daily lives. Numerous studies have indicated that plateau environments can severely impact cognitive functions. However, it remains unclear whether prolonged exposure to chronic hypoxic conditions is specifically linked to PM performance. To address this issue, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, we involved 63 Tibetan freshmen from both the plateau and super-plateau regions. The results indicated that the super-plateau group exhibited poorer performance on PM, especially the time-based PM (TBPM) tasks compared to the plateau group, while no significant difference was observed in event-based PM (EBPM) tasks. Experiment 2 included 62 Tibetan freshmen from the plateau and super-plateau regions and replicated the findings of Experiment 1, providing further evidence of an association between super-plateau conditions and PM performance; the super-plateau group showed diminished TBPM performance relative to the plateau group. We also found lower performance in working memory updating and inhibitory control abilities in the super-plateau group. Mediation analysis further suggested that the impact of chronic hypoxia and EBPM is primarily achieved through impairing response inhibition ability, which may be associated with impairments in the processes of intention retrieval and monitoring. In contrast, its effect on TBPM may be explained by the combined deterioration of general executive function and specialized temporal cognitive abilities, synergistically leading to dysfunction of the strategic monitoring system. These results suggest that chronic exposure to plateau hypoxia is adversely associated with poorer performance in PM, with fundamentally different underlying mechanisms for EBPM and TBPM.</p>