Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : Strategic Control of Directed Forgetting in Older and Younger Adults*
TL;DR: Two experiments investigated list-method directed forgetting with older and younger adults and showed that age-related differences in directed forgetting occurred because older adults were less likely than younger adults to initiate a strategy to attempt to forget.
Abstract: This article is about age-related differences in intentional forgetting of unwanted information. Imagine receiving medication and reading the directions on how to take it. Afterwards, the doctor tells you to take a different dosage at a different time from that printed on the label. Updating the directions may necessitate intentional forgetting of the earlier-learned information. The current article took one approach to examining this issue by examining age differences in the effectiveness of intentional forgetting using the popular list-method directed forgetting procedure invented by R. A. Bjork, LaBerge, and LeGrand (1968).
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TL;DR: This paper investigated whether people judged that they could engage in intentional forgetting by measuring the sensitivity of list-level, or global, judgments of learning (JOLs), and found that intentional forgetting does not depend on awareness of the ability to forget.
2 citations
TL;DR: Indirect memory measures of forgetting efficacy can provide a fuller understanding of spared and impaired control processes in older adults.
Abstract: Voluntary forgetting is accomplished via top-down control over memory contents. Age-related declines in cognitive control may compromise voluntary forgetting. Using a working-memory variant of a di...
1 citations
Dissertation•
01 Nov 2009
TL;DR: The authors explored implicit and explicit memory consequences of age differences in susceptibility to distraction when previous distraction occurs as target information in a later memory task and found that older adults recall more previously distracting than new words whereas younger adults recall the same amount of previously distracting and new words.
Abstract: This investigation explored implicit and explicit memory consequences of age differences in susceptibility to distraction when previous distraction occurs as target information in a later memory task. Younger and older adults were presented with either implicit (Study 1) or explicit (Studies 2 and 3) memory tasks that included previously distracting and new words. Study 1 explored whether prior exposure to distraction would transfer to improve memory when previously distracting words were included in list to be studied for a recall task. Older adults recalled more previously distracting than new words whereas younger adults recalled the same amount of previously distracting and new words. This initial study was implicit in its use of previously distracting information in that participants were neither informed nor aware of their prior exposure to words in the recall task. Here, only older adults’ memory was influenced by prior exposure to distraction and their recall actually increased to the level of younger adults with implicit use of distraction to improve performance.
1 citations
Cites background from "Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..."
...Younger adults may also restrain retrieval to desired information as dictated by task context or current goals (Sahakyan et al., 2008; Jacoby et al., 2005)....
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01 Nov 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how age differences in directed forgetting performance are affected by the emotional content of the to-be-forgotten material. But, when the impact of affect regulation on memory performance was examined, a trend emerged with only the high regulating older adults showing the directed forgetting effect, consistent with the idea that negative emotion disrupts individuals' ability to engage in intentional forgetting.
Abstract: ELLIOTT, TONYA LEE. The Impact of Emotional Content on Adult Age Differences in Directed Forgetting. (Under the direction of Thomas M. Hess, Ph.D.) Aging is often negatively associated with memory and inhibitory functioning. Few age differences, however, have been reported in the ability to intentionally forget information (i.e., directed forgetting). Recent research with younger adults has suggested that directed forgetting is impeded when emotional material is presented, due to such material interfering with inhibitory functioning. Given older adults have specific problems with inhibitory functions, it might be expected that they would experience even more disruption in directed forgetting when the to-be-forgotten material is emotional. Research on aging has also suggested, however, that emotion regulation skills are maintained or even improve in later adulthood. Thus, an alternative prediction is that older adults will experience less disruption in directed forgetting due to their increased ability to suppress negative emotions. The purpose of the proposed study is to examine how age differences in directed forgetting performance are affected by the emotional content of the to-be-forgotten materials. Using the list-method directed forgetting approach, young (N= 70) and older (N= 63) adults were presented with two sets of two lists of words, with the emotional content of the two lists in each set varying across participants. Participants were assigned one of the following four list types, corresponding to the content of the first/second list in each set: negative/negative, negative/neutral, neutral/negative, and neutral/neutral. In each set, the second list was always followed by a “remember” cue, whereas the initial list in each set was followed by either a “forget” or “remember” cue. The results of the study revealed that young adults were able to forget the first word list when cued to forget for every list type, except the negative/negative. Older adults, on the other hand, were able to forget the first word list when cued to forget for every list type except the neutral/neutral. However, when the impact of affect regulation on memory performance was examined a trend emerged with only the high regulating older adults showing the directed forgetting effect. These findings are consistent with the idea that the presence of negative emotion disrupts individuals' ability to engage in intentional forgetting. However, the degree of disruption in directed forgetting may be related to how well one is at regulating their emotions. The Impact of Emotional Content on Adult Age Differences in Directed Forgetting by Tonya Lee Elliott A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of directed forgetting on information processed for its survival value were examined and the mechanisms that might underpin these were evaluated and considered in relation to future work, including free-recall "remember" and "know" responses, indicative of the retrieval of associative or contextual details.
Abstract: Two experiments examined the effects of directed (intentional) forgetting on information processed for its survival value. Experiment 1 used the list-method directed forgetting procedure in which items processed for their relevance to survival, moving house or pleasantness were followed by the cue to remember or forget. Following the encoding of a second list, free-recall of both lists showed that survival encoding brought about greater remembering (after the remember cue) and forgetting (after the forget cue). Experiment 2 also used the list-method and manipulated mental context reinstatement prior to recall. Although this manipulation was effective in enhancing memory, more directed forgetting was again shown in the survival condition. In both experiments the effects of survival processing were shown also in free-recall "remember" (vs. "know") responses, indicative of the retrieval of associative or contextual details. The mechanisms that might underpin these were evaluated and considered in relation to future work.
1 citations
References
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TL;DR: The role of stereotype vulnerability in the standardized test performance of ability-stigmatized groups is discussed and mere salience of the stereotype could impair Blacks' performance even when the test was not ability diagnostic.
Abstract: Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as self-characte ristic, a negative stereotype about one's group. Studies 1 and 2 varied the stereotype vulnerability of Black participants taking a difficult verbal test by varying whether or not their performance was ostensibly diagnostic of ability, and thus, whether or not they were at risk of fulfilling the racial stereotype about their intellectual ability. Reflecting the pressure of this vulnerability, Blacks underperformed in relation to Whites in the ability-diagnostic condition but not in the nondiagnostic condition (with Scholastic Aptitude Tests controlled). Study 3 validated that ability-diagnosticity cognitively activated the racial stereotype in these participants and motivated them not to conform to it, or to be judged by it. Study 4 showed that mere salience of the stereotype could impair Blacks' performance even when the test was not ability diagnostic. The role of stereotype vulnerability in the standardized test performance of ability-stigmatized groups is discussed. Not long ago, in explaining his career-long preoccupation with the American Jewish experience, the novelist Philip Roth said that it was not Jewish culture or religion per se that fascinated him, it was what he called the Jewish "predicament." This is an apt term for the perspective taken in the present research. It focuses on a social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group. It is this: the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes. We call this predicament stereotype threat and argue that it is experienced, essentially, as a self-evaluative threat. In form, it is a predicament that can beset the members of any group about whom negative stereotypes exist. Consider the stereotypes elicited by the terms yuppie, feminist, liberal, or White male. Their prevalence in society raises the possibility for potential targets that the stereotype is true of them and, also, that other people will see them that way. When the allegations of the stereotype are importantly
7,282 citations
"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background in this paper
...Activating negative stereotypes impairs performance on other cognitive tasks (e.g., Steele & Aronson, 1995; Rahhal et al., 2001)....
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Book•
03 Jul 2010
TL;DR: The Psychology of Learning and Motivation (PLM) series as mentioned in this paper is a collection of contributions in cognitive and experimental psychology, ranging from classical and instrumental conditioning to complex learning and problem solving.
Abstract: Psychology of Learning and Motivation publishes empirical and theoretical contributions in cognitive and experimental psychology, ranging from classical and instrumental conditioning to complex learning and problem solving. Each chapter thoughtfully integrates the writings of leading contributors, who present and discuss significant bodies of research relevant to their discipline. Volume 62 includes chapters on such varied topics as automatic logic and effortful beliefs, complex learning and development, bias detection and heuristics thinking, perceiving scale in real and virtual environments, using multidimensional encoding and retrieval contexts to enhance our understanding of source memory, causes and consequences of forgetting in thinking and remembering and people as contexts in conversation. * Volume 62 of the highly regarded Psychology of Learning and Motivation series* An essential reference for researchers and academics in cognitive science* Relevant to both applied concerns and basic research
3,864 citations
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical literature that addresses aging and discourse comprehension and a series of five studies guided by a particular working memory viewpoint regarding the formation of inferences during discourse processing are described.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical literature that addresses aging and discourse comprehension. A series of five studies guided by a particular working memory viewpoint regarding the formation of inferences during discourse processing is described in the chapter. Compensatory strategies may be used with different degrees of likelihood across the life span largely as a function of efficiency with which inhibitory mechanisms function because these largely determine the facility with which memory can be searched. The consequences for discourse comprehension in particular may be profound because the establishment of a coherent representation of a message hinges on the timely retrieval of information necessary to establish coreference among certain critical ideas. Discourse comprehension is an ideal domain for assessing limited capacity frameworks because most models of discourse processing assume that multiple components, demanding substantially different levels of cognitive resources, are involved. For example, access to a lexical representation from either a visual array or an auditory message is virtually capacity free.
3,331 citations
"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background in this paper
...Given that older adults’ memory deficits have been attributed in part to impaired inhibitory abilities (e.g., Hasher & Zacks, 1988) or to associative memory deficits, including difficulties in binding events to their context (e.g., Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996; M. K. Johnson, 1997; Naveh-Benjamin,…...
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01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a broad overview of the field of cognitive aging research, including abnormal aging, the neuroscience of aging, and applied cognitive psychology along with the core section on basic cognitive processes.
Abstract: The study of age-related changes in cognitive processes is flourishing as never before, making the area an exciting one for a growing number of researchers. In addition, cognitive aging research is moving out from its traditional roots in experimental and developmental psychology -- creating increased contact with cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. To reflect these changes in the field, this volume includes chapters on abnormal aging, the neuroscience of aging, and applied cognitive psychology along with the core section on basic cognitive processes. While other recent compilations of research in this area have given relatively brief overviews of the literature, the contributors were given space to review each topic in depth, asked to evaluate the field -- not simply their own contributions -- and to provide critical commentaries from their personal perspectives. Couched most often in terms of cognitive or information-processing models, the general perspective of the contributors is a biologically-based account of aging. This shared viewpoint gives the volume particular coherence in its treatment of theories and data. Topics covered include age differences in attention, perception, memory, knowledge representation, reasoning, and language as well as their neuropsychological and neurological correlates and practical implications.
2,428 citations
"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background in this paper
...It is known that older adults have negative stereotypes about the effects of aging on memory (Camp & Pignatiello, 1988; Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000; Hummert, 1990; Kite & Johnson, 1988; Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998; Ryan, 1992), and believe that they will perform more poorly on memory tests compared to younger adults (Berry & West, 1993; Cavanaugh, 1996; Cavanaugh & Green, 1990; West & Berry, 1994)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1973TL;DR: In this paper, a theory about human memory, about how a person encodes, retains, and retrieves information from memory, was proposed and tested, based on the HAM theory.
Abstract: Published in 1980, part of the Experimental Psychology series. This book proposes and tests a theory about human memory, about how a person encodes, retains, and retrieves information from memory. This edition contains two major parts. First is the historical analysis of associationism and its countertraditions. This still provides the framework that has been used to relate the current research to an important intellectual tradition. This is reproduced without comment from the original book; historical analyses do not need as rapid revision as theoretical analyses. The second part of the book reproduces the major components of the HAM theory.
2,340 citations
"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background in this paper
...…about the temporal–spatial–mental context— that is, the time–place of an event, as well as the internal cognitive state of the participant (e.g., Anderson & Bower, 1973; Gillund & Shiffrin, 1984; Humphreys, 1976; M. K. Johnson & Chalfonte, 1994; M. K. Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993;…...
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