[3] Meacham initiated the study of prospective memory, a research subject in cognitive psychology and other fields, in the early 1970s.
Meacham was the first to introduce this distinction, along with the term prospective memory, at a University of Rochester colloquium in December 1974 and subsequently at the Chicago meeting of the American Psychological Association in September 1975.
[5][6] Meacham argued that the essence of wisdom is holding the attitude that knowledge is fallible and striving for a balance between knowing and doubting.
"[7] Thus, the challenge of being wise is to maintain the balance between acquiring more knowledge, on the one hand, and discovering new uncertainties, doubts, and questions, on the other.
He served as a consultant for the Association of American Colleges and Universities for eighteen years, including five years at the Asheville (North Carolina) Institutes on General Education (1999-2013), where he provided workshops on student-centered pedagogy, assessment of student learning, student intellectual development, and diversity in higher education.
In his earlier writing, Meacham was influenced by Klaus F. Riegel, Hans G. Furth, Paul Baltes, and Jean Piaget and, later, by Jurgen Habermas.
[10] In a 2015 chapter, Meacham used Pepper's World Hypotheses metaphors to introduce four families of theories of children’s development.
For example, parents and teachers educate children by drawing forth, instructing and training, encouraging creativity, or providing conditions for growth.
Similarly, children respond to education by discovering and expressing, learning and acquiring, questioning and creating, or solving problems and resolving conflicts.