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Journal ArticleDOI

List-method directed forgetting: The forget cue improves both encoding and retrieval of postcue information

17 May 2012-Memory & Cognition (Springer-Verlag)-Vol. 40, Iss: 6, pp 861-873
TL;DR: The findings suggest that two separate factors can contribute to list 2 enhancement: one (encoding) factor that is restricted to early list 2 items and does not depend on list output order, and another (retrieval) factors that pertains to all list 2Items and varies with the two lists’ output order.
Abstract: In list-method directed forgetting, people are cued to forget a previously studied item list and to learn a new list instead Such cuing typically leads to forgetting of the first list and to memory enhancement of the second, referred to as list 1 forgetting and list 2 enhancement In the present study, two experiments are reported that examined influences of items’ serial learning position in a list and the two lists’ output order on list-method directed forgetting The results show that list output order influences list 2 enhancement but not list 1 forgetting The enhancement was higher when list 2 was recalled first than when list 1 was recalled first and, in both cases, was higher for early list 2 items than for middle and late list 2 items In contrast, the forgetting was equally present for all list 1 items and did not depend on the two lists’ output order The findings suggest that two separate factors can contribute to list 2 enhancement: one (encoding) factor that is restricted to early list 2 items and does not depend on list output order, and another (retrieval) factor that pertains to all list 2 items and varies with the two lists’ output order A new two-mechanism account of directed forgetting is suggested that reconciles previous (encoding or retrieval) views on list 2 enhancement

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A core discovery concerns the role of the prefrontal cortex in exerting top-down control over mnemonic activity in the hippocampus and other brain structures, often via inhibitory control.
Abstract: Over the past century, psychologists have discussed whether forgetting might arise from active mechanisms that promote memory loss to achieve various functions, such as minimizing errors, facilitating learning, or regulating one's emotional state. The past decade has witnessed a great expansion in knowledge about the brain mechanisms underlying active forgetting in its varying forms. A core discovery concerns the role of the prefrontal cortex in exerting top-down control over mnemonic activity in the hippocampus and other brain structures, often via inhibitory control. New findings reveal that such processes not only induce forgetting of specific memories but also can suppress the operation of mnemonic processes more broadly, triggering windows of anterograde and retrograde amnesia in healthy people. Recent work extends active forgetting to nonhuman animals, presaging the development of a multilevel mechanistic account that spans the cognitive, systems, network, and even cellular levels. This work reveals how organisms adapt their memories to their cognitive and emotional goals and has implications for understanding vulnerability to psychiatric disorders.

104 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate that all three forms of release from proactive interference are accompanied by a decrease in participants' response latencies, which suggest that release can reflect more focused memory search, with the previously studied nontarget items being largely eliminated from the search process.
Abstract: Proactive interference (PI) refers to the finding that memory for recently studied (target) information can be vastly impaired by the previous study of other (nontarget) information. PI can be reduced in a number of ways, for instance, by directed forgetting of the prior nontarget information, the testing of the prior nontarget information, or an internal context change before study of the target information. Here we report the results of four experiments, in which we demonstrate that all three forms of release from PI are accompanied by a decrease in participants’ response latencies. Because response latency is a sensitive index of the size of participants’ mental search set, the results suggest that release from PI can reflect more focused memory search, with the previously studied nontarget items being largely eliminated from the search process. Our results thus provide direct evidence for a critical role of retrieval processes in PI release.

84 citations


Cites result from "List-method directed forgetting: Th..."

  • ...Although recall levels increased from the first to the second block, p = .001, thus replicating a recent finding by Pastötter et al. (2012), this effect did not vary with condition, F(2,22) < 1....

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Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: The authors provide an up-to-date review of the twenty-first century research and theory on list-method directed forgetting (DF) and related phenomena like the context-change effect.
Abstract: The primary purpose of this chapter is to provide an up-to-date review of the twenty-first century research and theory on list-method directed forgetting (DF) and related phenomena like the context-change effect. Many researchers have assumed that DF is diagnostic of inhibition, but we argue for an alternative, noninhibitory account and suggest reinterpretation of earlier findings. We first describe what DF is and the state of the art with regard to measuring the effect. Then, we review recent evidence that brings DF into the family of effects that can be explained by global memory models. The process-based theory we advocate is that the DF impairment arises from mental context change and that the DF benefits emerge mainly but perhaps not exclusively from changes in encoding strategy. We review evidence (some new to this paper) that strongly suggests that DF arises from the engagement of controlled forgetting strategies that are independent of whether people believed the forget cue or not. Then we describe the vast body of literature supporting that forgetting strategies result in contextual change effects, as well as point out some inconsistencies in the DF literature that need to be addressed in future research. Next, we provide evidence—again, some of it new to this chapter—that the reason people show better memory after a forget cue is that they change encoding strategies. In addition to reviewing the basic research with healthy population, we reinterpret the evidence from the literature on certain clinical populations, providing a critique of the work done to date and outlining ways of improving the methodology for the study of DF in special populations. We conclude with a critical discussion of alternative approaches to understanding DF.

76 citations


Cites background or result from "List-method directed forgetting: Th..."

  • ...However, a recent meta-analysis of list-method DF studies that included both forget and remember groups did not support this notion; initiating retrieval with L2 did not exaggerate the magnitude of DF costs, although it made it easier to detect the DF benefits (Pastötter et al., 2012)....

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  • ...We identified five published DF studies that examined serial position functions in DF (Geiselman et al., 1983; Lehman & Malmberg, 2009; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012; Sahakyan & Foster, 2009)....

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  • ...However, Pastötter et al. (2012) showed that retrieving L2 first does not increase the magnitude of forgetting....

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  • ...Such measures include investigations of serial position functions (Geiselman, Bjork, & Fishman, 1983; Lehman & Malmberg, 2009; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012; Sahakyan & Foster, 2009; Sheard & MacLeod, 2005), intrusion errors (Lehman & Malmberg, 2009; Sahakyan & Delaney, 2010; Spillers & Unsworth, 2011), recall latencies, which indicate an average time point in the recall period when responses were emitted (Spillers & Unsworth, 2011; Unsworth, Spillers, & Brewer, 2012), first response functions, which provide a measure of where in the list participants initiate their recall (e....

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  • ...…measures include investigations of serial position functions (Geiselman, Bjork, & Fishman, 1983; Lehman & Malmberg, 2009; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012; Sahakyan & Foster, 2009; Sheard & MacLeod, 2005), intrusion errors (Lehman & Malmberg, 2009; Sahakyan & Delaney, 2010;…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work examined whether sleep influences directed forgetting, the finding that people can intentionally forget obsolete memories when cued to do so, by applying the list-method directed forgetting task.
Abstract: Recent work suggests a link between sleep and memory consolidation, indicating that sleep in comparison to wakefulness stabilizes memories. However, relatively little is known about how sleep affects forgetting. Here we examined whether sleep influences directed forgetting, the finding that people can intentionally forget obsolete memories when cued to do so. We applied the list-method directed forgetting task and assessed memory performance after three delay intervals. Directed forgetting was present after a short 20-min delay and after a 12-h delay filled with diurnal wakefulness; in contrast, the forgetting was absent after a 12-h delay that included regular nocturnal sleep. Successful directed forgetting after a delay thus can depend on whether sleep or wakefulness follows upon encoding: when wakefulness follows upon encoding, the forgetting can be successful; when sleep follows upon encoding, no forgetting may arise. Connections of the results to recent studies on the interplay between forgetting and sleep are discussed.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results from the three experiments suggest that neither rehearsal nor context change seem to be the mechanisms underlying SDF, while the pattern of results is consistent with an inhibitory account.
Abstract: While some studies have shown that providing a cue to selectively forget one subset of previously learned facts may cause specific forgetting of this information, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this memory phenomenon. In three experiments we aimed to better understand the nature of the selective directed forgetting (SDF) effect. Participants studied a List 1 consisting of 18 sentences regarding two (or three) different characters and a List 2 consisting of sentences regarding an additional character. In Experiment 1, we explored the role of rehearsal as the mechanism producing SDF by examining the effect of articulatory suppression after List 1 and during List 2 presentation. In Experiment 2 and 3 we explored the role of attentional control mechanisms by introducing a concurrent updating task after List 1 and during List 2 (Experiment 2) and by manipulating the number of characters to be selectively forgotten (1 out of 3 vs. 2 out of 3). Results from the three experiments suggest that neither rehearsal nor context change seem to be the mechanisms underlying SDF, while the pattern of results is consistent with an inhibitory account. In addition, whatever the responsible mechanism is, SDF seems to rely on the available attentional resources and the demands of the task. Our results join other findings to show that SDF is a robust phenomenon and suggest boundary conditions for the effect to be observed.

29 citations


Cites methods or result from "List-method directed forgetting: Th..."

  • ...No analyses were performed in the present work to look at the putative benefit of forgetting List 1 over List 2 recall, since List 2 was always tested the latest and this has been shown to significantly lessen List 2 enhancement (Pastötter et al., 2012)....

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  • ...Finally, we looked at List 2 performance to examine if, as it has been found with the non-selective LM-DF procedure (Pastötter and Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012), the benefit for List 2 items after the instruction to forget is restricted to early serial positions when List 1 is tested first....

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  • ...…the present findings are partially in line with those from previous LM-DF studies showing that when List 1 is tested first, the enhancement of List 2 items that is associated with the instruction to forget only affects the early studied items (Pastötter and Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012)....

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  • ...Hence, the present findings are partially in line with those from previous LM-DF studies showing that when List 1 is tested first, the enhancement of List 2 items that is associated with the instruction to forget only affects the early studied items (Pastötter and Bäuml, 2010; Pastötter et al., 2012)....

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  • ...According with Pastötter et al. (2012), List 2 enhancement should mainly arise when List 2 is retrieved before List 1....

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References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model for estimating the effect size from a series of experiments using a fixed effect model and a general linear model, and combine these two models to estimate the effect magnitude.
Abstract: Preface. Introduction. Data Sets. Tests of Statistical Significance of Combined Results. Vote-Counting Methods. Estimation of a Single Effect Size: Parametric and Nonparametric Methods. Parametric Estimation of Effect Size from a Series of Experiments. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: Categorical Methods. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: General Linear Models. Random Effects Models for Effect Sizes. Multivariate Models for Effect Sizes. Combining Estimates of Correlation Coefficients. Diagnostic Procedures for Research Synthesis Models. Clustering Estimates of Effect Magnitude. Estimation of Effect Size When Not All Study Outcomes Are Observed. Meta-Analysis in the Physical and Biological Sciences. Appendix. References. Index.

9,769 citations


"List-method directed forgetting: Th..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...In all calculations and procedures for categorical model fitting, we followed the approach by Hedges and Olkin (1985). For each study, weighted effect sizes of list 2 enhance-...

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  • ...In all calculations and procedures for categorical model fitting, we followed the approach by Hedges and Olkin (1985)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model for estimating the effect size from a series of experiments using a fixed effect model and a general linear model, and combine these two models to estimate the effect magnitude.
Abstract: Preface. Introduction. Data Sets. Tests of Statistical Significance of Combined Results. Vote-Counting Methods. Estimation of a Single Effect Size: Parametric and Nonparametric Methods. Parametric Estimation of Effect Size from a Series of Experiments. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: Categorical Methods. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: General Linear Models. Random Effects Models for Effect Sizes. Multivariate Models for Effect Sizes. Combining Estimates of Correlation Coefficients. Diagnostic Procedures for Research Synthesis Models. Clustering Estimates of Effect Magnitude. Estimation of Effect Size When Not All Study Outcomes Are Observed. Meta-Analysis in the Physical and Biological Sciences. Appendix. References. Index.

7,063 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: It is suggested that 2 memory components are needed to account for the recency effects: an episodic contextual system with changing context and an activation-based short-term memory buffer that drives the encoding of item-context associations.
Abstract: In the single-store model of memory, the enhanced recall for the last items in a free-recall task (i.e., the recency effect) is understood to reflect a general property of memory rather than a separate short-term store. This interpretation is supported by the finding of a long-term recency effect under conditions that eliminate the contribution from the short-term store. In this article, evidence is reviewed showing that recency effects in the short and long terms have different properties, and it is suggested that 2 memory components are needed to account for the recency effects: an episodic contextual system with changing context and an activation-based short-term memory buffer that drives the encoding of item-context associations. A neurocomputational model based on these 2 components is shown to account for previously observed dissociations and to make novel predictions, which are confirmed in a set of experiments.

392 citations


"List-method directed forgetting: Th..." refers background or result in this paper

  • ...Second, because all list 2 items should benefit from the cueinduced reduction in list 1 interference (Davelaar et al., 2005; Neath & Brown, 2006), we expected list 2 enhancement to be present for all list 2 items when list 2 was recalled first; in particular, if both general interference reduction…...

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  • ...Additionally, however, it assumes that, by inhibiting the list 1 context, the forget cue causes interference reduction for all list 2 items and, thus, can improve retrieval of these items at test (see Davelaar et al., 2005; Neath & Brown, 2006)....

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  • ...Second, because all list 2 items should benefit from the cueinduced reduction in list 1 interference (Davelaar et al., 2005; Neath & Brown, 2006), we expected list 2 enhancement to be present for all list 2 items when list 2 was recalled first; in particular, if both general interference reduction for all list 2 items and reset of encoding of early list 2 items (e....

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  • ...Additionally, however, it assumes that, by inhibiting the list 1 context, the forget cue causes interference reduction for all list 2 items and, thus, can improve retrieval of these items at test (see Davelaar et al., 2005; Neath & Brown, 2006). Crucially, whereas the reset is supposed to reflect an encoding effect and to be effective regardless of list output order, the beneficial effect of interference reduction is supposed to reflect a retrieval effect that is present only if list 2 is recalled first and list 1’s interference potential is not reactivated by prior recall of the list. Thus, both reset of encoding and interference reduction are assumed to contribute to list 2 enhancement when list 2 is recalled first, whereas mainly reset of encoding but less interference reduction are assumed to contribute when list 1 is recalled first. The present view that two different factors may contribute to list 2 enhancement is consistent with Lehman and Malmberg’s (2009) recently proposed computational model of remembering and forgetting in multiple lists, which assumes that both interference reduction and differential...

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  • ...The general enhancement effect for list 2 items arising from interference reduction (Davelaar et al., 2005; Neath & Brown, 2006) thus should mainly be present if list 2 was recalled first but be largely absent if list 1 was recalled first....

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Book ChapterDOI

390 citations


"List-method directed forgetting: Th..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...The results of Experiment 1 show the two typical directedforgetting effects, list 1 forgetting and list 2 enhancement. As was expected, mean list 2 enhancement varied with list output order: Reliable list 2 enhancement arose only when list 2 was recalled first, but it did not arise when list 1 was recalled first, suggesting that recalling list 1 items first reinstated the list’s interference potential in the forget condition and, thus, reduced subsequent list 2 enhancement. The finding for list 2 contrasts with the results for list 1. Mean list 1 forgetting was present regardless of list output order. This held although list output order per se affected the results and list 1 recall was generally higher when list 1 was recalled first than when list 1 was recalled last. List output order thus seems to have different influences on the two directed-forgetting effects. Serial position analysis of the two lists showed higher levels of list 2 enhancement for early list 2 items than for middle and late list 2 items. This differential effect did not depend on list output order, although the items’ general amount of enhancement varied with output order. Indeed, enhancement for the middle and late list items was present only when list 2 was recalled first, but it was absent when list 1 was recalled first; the latter finding replicates the results from previous studies in which list 1 was recalled first (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010; Sahakyan & Foster, 2009). Serial position analysis also showed that list 1 forgetting does not vary with the items’ serial position. List 1 forgetting arose for all list items, and it arose regardless of whether list 1 was recalled first or last. The finding replicates prior results by Sahakyan and Foster and by Pastötter and Bäuml (2010), who asked participants to recall list 1 first and list 2 second, and generalizes it to the reversed output order....

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  • ...block 3) revealed a main effect of cue, F(1, 81) 0 54.16, MSE 0 .02, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .40, and a main effect of block, F(2, 162) 0 7.49, MSE 0 .02, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .09, but no interaction between the two factors, F(2, 162) < 1. Indeed, recall increased across blocks (50.9% vs. 54.7% vs. 57.5%), and forget-cued participants showed higher list 2 recall than did remember-cued participants (59.6% vs. 49.2%). On the item level, list 2 recall rates as a function of cue and serial position are depicted in Fig. 3b. A 2 × 3 × 4 ANOVAwith the factors of cue (remember vs. forget), block (block 1 vs. block 2 vs. block 3), and serial position (bin 1 vs. bin 2 vs. bin 3 vs. bin 4) was calculated. Consistent with the list-level analysis above, the ANOVA revealed main effects of cue, F(1, 81) 0 60.19, MSE 0 .08, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .43, and block,F(2, 162)0 6.20,MSE 0 .08, p < .01, partial η(2) 0 .07. Going beyond the list-level analysis, the ANOVA revealed a main effect of serial position, F(3, 243) 0 14.03, MSE 0 .08, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .15, and a cue × serial position interaction, F(3, 243) 0 3.06, MSE 0 .08, p < .05, partial η(2) 0 .04; other interactions were nonsignificant, Fs < 1.70, ps > .12. The main effect of serial position indicates that recall for bin 1 items (66.5%) was higher than recall for bin 2 (52.1%), t(81) 0 8.29, p < .001, d 0 0.66, bin 3 (49.0%), t(81) 0 8.27, p < .001, d 0 0.77, and bin 4 (50.0%), t(81) 0 7.32, p < .001, d 0 0.76, items; all other differences were nonsignificant, ts(81) < 1.70, ps > .10. Due to the reliable cue × serial position interaction, post hoc analyses were calculated, indicating a beneficial effect of the forget cue for bin 1 (77.0% vs. 55.8%), t(81) 0 7.86, p < .001, d 0 0.87, bin 2 (56.1% vs. 48.1%), t(81) 0 2.74, p < .01, d 0 0.31, bin 3 (52.4% vs. 45.7%), t(81) 0 2.68, p < .01, d 0 0.26, and bin 4 (52.9% vs. 47.1%), t(81) 0 2.11, p < .05, d 0 0.23, items. Crucially, pairwise comparisons showed that enhancement for bin 1 items was larger than enhancement for bin 2, F(1, 81) 0 13.31, MSE 0 .03, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .14, bin 3, F(1, 81) 0 15.74, MSE 0 .03, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .16, and bin 4, F(1, 81) 0 15.70, MSE 0 .03, p < .001, partial η(2) 0 .16, items; all other Mem Cogn (2012) 40:861–873 867...

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  • ...According to the two-mechanism accounts of directed forgetting suggested by Sahakyan and Delaney (2003) and 0 ....

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  • ...On the basis of such dissociations, more recently, twomechanism accounts of directed forgetting have been suggested, according to which list 1 forgetting and list 2 enhancement arise from different mechanisms. In particular, it has been suggested that the forgetting reflects reduced accessibility of list 1 items at retrieval and the enhancement reflects a change in list 2 encoding. Sahakyan and Delaney (2003), for instance, proposed a two-mechanism account that attributes list 1 forgetting to a change in internal context and list 2 enhancement to a change in encoding strategy, with more elaborate encoding of list 2 items after a forget cue than after a remember cue....

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  • ...On the basis of such dissociations, more recently, twomechanism accounts of directed forgetting have been suggested, according to which list 1 forgetting and list 2 enhancement arise from different mechanisms. In particular, it has been suggested that the forgetting reflects reduced accessibility of list 1 items at retrieval and the enhancement reflects a change in list 2 encoding. Sahakyan and Delaney (2003), for instance, proposed a two-mechanism account that attributes list 1 forgetting to a change in internal context and list 2 enhancement to a change in encoding strategy, with more elaborate encoding of list 2 items after a forget cue than after a remember cue. Pastötter and Bäuml (2010) proposed a two-mechanism account that attributes list 1 forgetting to retrieval inhibition and list 2 enhancement to a reset of encoding processes....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors propose that the costs and benefits of directed forgetting in the list method result from an internal context change that occurs between the presentations of 2 lists in response to a "forget" instruction.
Abstract: The authors propose that the costs and benefits of directed forgetting in the list method result from an internal context change that occurs between the presentations of 2 lists in response to a “forget” instruction. In Experiment 1 of this study, costs and benefits akin to those found in directed forgetting were obtained in the absence of a forget instruction by a direct manipulation of cognitive context change. Experiment 2 of this study replicated those findings using a different cognitive context manipulation and investigated the effects of context reinstatement at the time of recall. Context reinstatement reduced the memorial costs and benefits of context change in the condition where context had been manipulated and in the standard forget condition. The results are consistent with a context change account of directed forgetting. Directed forgetting is a phenomenon first studied by R. A. Bjork, LaBerge, and LeGrand (1968) whereby people appear to be able to intentionally forget information, making it less accessible to later attempts at recall and reducing interference from that information. The paradigm involves two variations: the item method, which seems to reflect differential encoding of items, and the list method, which does not depend on differential encoding of items (Basden, Basden, & Gargano, 1993). The present work concerns the mechanism of directed forgetting with the list method. Participants are presented two lists of items to study but, immediately after List 1, half of the participants are instructed to forget List 1 (the “forget” group), whereas the remaining half are told to continue remembering List 1 (the “remember” group). The final test requires recall of both lists. Typically, the forget group recalls fewer items from the first list than does the remember group—a finding referred to as the costs of directed forgetting

359 citations


"List-method directed forgetting: Th..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...…account claims that the forget cue induces a change in participants’ internal context, which then impairs list 1 recall, due to a mismatch between the context at encoding and the context at retrieval, and improves later list 2 recall, due to a reduction in interference (Sahakyan & Kelley, 2002)....

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  • ...First, on the basis of the view that the forget cue reduces list 1 items’ interference potential (e.g., Geiselman et al., 1983; Sahakyan & Kelley, 2002) and the finding that successful retrieval of list 1 items at test can reactivate the list’s interference potential (e.g., Bäuml & Samenieh, 2010;…...

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  • ...This holds for all accounts that assume that list 1 forgetting reflects reduced accessibility of the list items—for example, retrieval inhibition (e.g., Geiselman et al., 1983; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2010) and the context change account (Sahakyan & Delaney, 2003; Sahakyan & Kelley, 2002)....

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  • ...Following Sahakyan and Kelley (2002), the model assumes that the forget cue causes a change in mental context between lists, which creates less overlap in contextual features between the two lists and, thus, reduces list 1 interference when list 2 items are recalled at test....

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