Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : Strategic Control of Directed Forgetting in Older and Younger Adults*

doi:10.1037/A0012766

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Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : Strategic Control of Directed Forgetting in Older and Younger Adults*

Journal Article•DOI•

Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : Strategic Control of Directed Forgetting in Older and Younger Adults*

Lili Sahakyan¹, Peter F. Delaney¹, Leilani B. Goodmon¹•Institutions (1)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro¹

01 Sep 2008-Psychology and Aging (NIH Public Access)-Vol. 23, Iss: 3, pp 621-633

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.

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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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Journal Article•DOI•

Intentional suppression of unwanted memories grows more difficult as we age.

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Michael C. Anderson¹, Julia Reinholz², Brice A. Kuhl³, Ulrich Mayr⁴•Institutions (4)

Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit¹, University of Münster², Yale University³, University of Oregon⁴

01 Jun 2011-Psychology and Aging

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the ability to intentionally regulate conscious awareness of unwanted memories through inhibitory control declines with age, highlighting differences in memory control that may be of clinical relevance in the aftermath of unpleasant life events.

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Abstract: People often encounter reminders to memories that they would prefer not to think about. When this happens, they often try to exclude the unwanted memory from awareness, a process that relies upon inhibitory control. We propose that the ability to regulate awareness of unwanted memories through inhibition declines with advancing age. In two experiments, we examined younger and older adults’ ability to intentionally suppress retrieval when repeatedly confronted with reminders to an experience they were instructed to not think about. Older adults exhibited significantly less forgetting of the suppressed items compared to younger adults on a later independent probe test of recall, indicating that older adults failed to inhibit the to-be-avoided memories. These findings demonstrate that the ability to intentionally regulate conscious awareness of unwanted memories through inhibitory control declines with age, highlighting differences in memory control that may be of clinical relevance in the aftermath of unpleasant life events.

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100 citations

Cites background or result from "Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..."

...This finding may differ from that reported by Sahakyan et al. (2008) with the directed forgetting procedure, perhaps because the Think/No-Think task confronts participants with strong cues to well learned responses that may create a more challenging control task....
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...…indicates that older adults sometimes are less able to intentionally forget a first list of memory items when given an instruction to forget followed by a second list (Sahakyan et al., 2008; Zacks, Radvanksy, & Hasher, 1996; however, see Zellner & Bäuml, 2006; Sego, Goldin, & Gottlob, 2006)....
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...It remains unclear, however, whether the reduced forgetting for older adults observed in the directed forgetting procedure reflects an inhibition deficit, or a tendency, on the part of older adults, to simply not try to forget because they feel they do not need to (Sahakyan et al., 2008)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Remembering to Forget: The Amnesic Effect of Daydreaming

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Peter F. Delaney¹, Lili Sahakyan¹, Colleen M. Kelley², Carissa A. Zimmerman²•Institutions (2)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro¹, Florida State University²

14 Jun 2010-Psychological Science

TL;DR: Results of two experiments support a context-change account of the amnesic effects of daydreaming, which suggests that daydreams that are more different from the current moment will result in more forgetting than daydreamed that are less different fromThe current moment.

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Abstract: Daydreaming mentally transports people to another place or time. Many daydreams are similar in content to the thoughts that people generate when they intentionally try to forget. Thus, thoughts like those generated during daydreaming can cause forgetting of previously encoded events. We conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that daydreams that are more different from the current moment (e.g., in distance, time, or circumstance) will result in more forgetting than daydreams that are less different from the current moment, because they result in a greater contextual shift. Daydreaming was simulated in the laboratory via instructions to engage in a diversionary thought. Participants learned a list of words, were asked to think about autobiographical memories, and then learned a second list of words. They tended to forget more words from the first list when they thought about their parents' home than when they thought about their current home (Experiment 1). They also tended to forget more when they thought about an international vacation than when they thought about a domestic vacation (Experiment 2). These results support a context-change account of the amnesic effects of daydreaming.

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99 citations

Book Chapter•DOI•

List-Method Directed Forgetting in Cognitive and Clinical Research: A Theoretical and Methodological Review

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Lili Sahakyan¹, Peter F. Delaney¹, Nathaniel L. Foster¹, Branden Abushanab¹•Institutions (1)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro¹

01 Jan 2013-Psychology of Learning and Motivation

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.

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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.

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76 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Intentional forgetting of actions: Comparison of list-method and item-method directed forgetting

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Lili Sahakyan¹, Nathaniel L. Foster¹•Institutions (1)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro¹

01 Jul 2009-Journal of Memory and Language

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the item-method of directed forgetting and obtained greater directed forgetting for VTs than SPTs, but only in the primacy region for SPTs.

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Abstract: Performing action phrases (subject-performed tasks, SPTs) leads to better memory than verbal learning instructions (verbal tasks, VTs). In Experiments 1–3, the list-method directed forgetting design produced equivalent directed forgetting impairment for VTs and SPTs; however, directed forgetting enhancement emerged only for VTs, but not SPTs. Serial position analyses revealed that both item types suffered equivalent forgetting across serial positions, but enhancement was evident mostly in the first half of List 2. Experiment 4 used the item-method of directed forgetting and obtained greater directed forgetting for VTs than SPTs. A remember-all baseline group allowed estimating the impairment for to-be-forgotten (TBF) items and enhancement for to-be-remembered (TBR) items. Serial position analyses showed greater impairment for TBF items from the beginning of the list than elsewhere in the list. Directed forgetting enhancement for TBR items occurred throughout the list for VTs, but only in the primacy region for SPTs. Overall, dissociations across the list-method and item-method studies with SPTs suggest that the two methods have different underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, dissociations obtained with SPTs within list-method studies provide support for the dual-factor directed forgetting account and challenge the single-factor accounts.

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70 citations

Cites background from "Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..."

...…investigations of directed forgetting have also taken this approach (e.g., Bäuml et al., 2008; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2007; Sahakyan & Delaney, 2005; Sahakyan & Goodmon, 2007; Sahakyan et al., 2008; Zellner & Bäuml, 2006).1 Unless otherwise specified, the results were significant at a = .05 level....
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...Recent investigations of directed forgetting have also taken this approach (e.g., Bäuml et al., 2008; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2007; Sahakyan & Delaney, 2005; Sahakyan & Goodmon, 2007; Sahakyan et al., 2008; Zellner & Bäuml, 2006)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Aging and directed forgetting in episodic memory: A meta-analysis.

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Cora Titz, Paul Verhaeghen¹•Institutions (1)

Georgia Institute of Technology¹

01 Jun 2010-Psychology and Aging

TL;DR: Age effects were reliably larger when the item method was used, suggesting that these effects are mainly due to encoding differences.

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Abstract: In this meta-analysis, we examined the effects of aging on directed forgetting. A cue to forget is more effective in younger (d = 1.17) than in older (d = 0.81) adults. Directed-forgetting effects were larger (a) with the item method rather than with the list method, (b) with longer presentation times, (c) with longer postcue rehearsal times, (d) with single words rather than with verbal action phrases as stimuli, (e) with shorter lists, and (f) when recall rather than recognition was tested. Age effects were reliably larger when the item method was used, suggesting that these effects are mainly due to encoding differences.

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60 citations

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Journal Article•DOI•

Intentional forgetting can increase, not decrease, residual influences of to-be-forgotten information.

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Elizabeth Ligon Bjork¹, Robert A. Bjork•Institutions (1)

University of California, Los Angeles¹

01 Jul 2003-Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition

TL;DR: Findings implicate retrieval inhibition as a potent factor in the interplay of recollection and priming in memory and judgment and point to possible unintended consequences of instructions to forget, suppress, or disregard in legal or social settings.

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Abstract: Intentionally forgotten information remains in memory at essentially full strength, as measured by recognition and priming, but access to that information is impaired, as measured by recall. Given that pattern, it seemed plausible that intentionally forgotten information might have a greater impact on certain subsequent judgments than would intentionally remembered information. In 2 experiments, participants cued to forget nonfamous names were subsequently more likely to make false attributions of fame to those names than were participants instructed to remember them. These findings implicate retrieval inhibition as a potent factor in the interplay of recollection and priming in memory and judgment. They also point to possible unintended consequences of instructions to forget, suppress, or disregard in legal or social settings.

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78 citations

"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background or methods in this paper

...In contrast, list-method directed forgetting somehow reduces access to to-be-forgotten items at test (E. L. Bjork & Bjork, 1996, 2003; R. A. Bjork, 1989; but see Benjamin, 2006; Sheard & MacLeod, 2005), and several retrieval-based mechanisms have been proposed....
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...…learning (e.g., Geiselman, Bjork, & Fishman, 1983; Sahakyan & Delaney, 2005; Sahakyan, Delaney, & Waldum, 2008), some researchers propose that directed forgetting is due to inhibition at the time of retrieval (e.g., E. L. Bjork & Bjork, 1996, 2003; R. A. Bjork, 1989; Geiselman et al., 1983)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Unexpected Costs of High Working Memory Capacity Following Directed Forgetting and Contextual Change Manipulations

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Peter F. Delaney¹, Lili Sahakyan¹•Institutions (1)

University of North Carolina at Greensboro¹

01 Jul 2007-Memory & Cognition

TL;DR: It is found that some types of interruptions actually lead to greater forgetting among high-span people than among low-spanPeople and a candidate explanation called the intensified context shift hypothesis is proposed which suggests that high- spans people are more context dependent than low- span people.

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Abstract: Greater working memory capacity is usually associated with greater ability to maintain information in the face of interruptions. In two experiments, we found that some types of interruptions actually lead to greater forgetting among high-span people than among low-span people. Specifically, an instruction designed to change mental context resulted in significant forgetting for high-span people but minimal forgetting among the low-span people. Intentional forgetting instructions also resulted in greater forgetting among higher working memory capacity participants than among lower working memory capacity participants. A candidate explanation called the intensified context shift hypothesis is proposed which suggests that high-span people are more context dependent than low-span people.

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77 citations

"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background or methods or result in this paper

...In studies with younger adults, the results in the contextchange condition have resembled the results in the directed forgetting condition across variations in the encoding strategy (Sahakyan & Delaney, 2003) and working memory capacity (Delaney & Sahakyan, 2007)....
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...Prior research showed that people with low working memory capacity are less likely to show directed forgetting costs and context-change costs than people with high working memory capacity (Delaney & Sahakyan, 2007; Soriano & Bajo, 2007)....
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...For younger adults, we replicated the List 1 results of earlier studies (Sahakyan & Delaney, 2003; Sahakyan & Kelley, 2002), with the remember group recalling more items than the forget group or the context-change group (see also Delaney & Sahakyan, 2007)....
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...Reduced directed forgetting among these populations is often attributed to underdeveloped or impaired inhibitory abilities (but cf. Delaney & Sahakyan, 2007, for a competing view suggesting impaired contextual binding or shifting)....
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Book Chapter•DOI•

List Method Directed Forgetting: Return of the Selective Rehearsal Account

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Erin D. Sheard¹, Colin MacLeod²•Institutions (2)

University of Toronto¹, University of Waterloo²

01 Jan 2005

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that a separate retrieval inhibition account of the list method is not parsimonious; rather, a selective rehearsal explanation can readily accommodate the principal results obtained under both procedures.

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Abstract: Explanations of directed forgetting—the poorer memory for information that we are instructed to forget (F items) than for information that we are instructed to remember (R items)—have featured two classes of accounts: rehearsal and retrieval. Under the rehearsal account, the argument has consistently been that R items are selectively rehearsed more than F items. Retrieval accounts have been more varied, but the concept of retrieval inhibition has become prevalent, the idea being that F items are suppressed following a forget instruction. For the last 10–15 years, these two explanations have been attached to the two most common procedures in directed forgetting studies: selective rehearsal to the item method, where individual items are randomly assigned instructions, and retrieval inhibition to the list method, where half the list is designated as to-be-forgotten. We report serial position and test warning effects that demonstrate clear selective rehearsal effects in the list procedure. We argue that a separate retrieval inhibition account of the list method is not parsimonious; rather, a selective rehearsal explanation can readily accommodate the principal results obtained under both procedures.

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76 citations

"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers methods in this paper

...In contrast, list-method directed forgetting somehow reduces access to to-be-forgotten items at test (E. L. Bjork & Bjork, 1996, 2003; R. A. Bjork, 1989; but see Benjamin, 2006; Sheard & MacLeod, 2005), and several retrieval-based mechanisms have been proposed....
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Book Chapter•DOI•

The Appearance and Disappearance of Age Differences in Adult Memory

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Marion Perlmutter¹, David B. Mitchell¹•Institutions (1)

University of Minnesota¹

01 Jan 1982

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a presentation of some of the research in which age deficits have been observed and a discussion of how the deficits often have been attenuated and sometimes eliminated, in a way that may shed light on the mechanisms underlying memory change in adulthood.

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Abstract: Over the past two decades there has been much support for the commonly held belief that memory deteriorates in later adulthood. However, there has been less progress towards understanding the basis of this decline. Moreover, under some conditions age differences have not been observed. Contrasting the situations in which deficits are and are not observed should be instructive for gaining an understanding of age-related changes in memory. The present chapter includes a presentation of some of our research in which age deficits have been observed and a discussion of how the deficits often have been attenuated and sometimes eliminated. Finally, an attempt is made to integrate these results, as well as other findings in the literature, in a way that may shed light on the mechanisms underlying memory change in adulthood.

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73 citations

"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers methods in this paper

...Prior research demonstrates that when the task is framed in a way that reduces the salience of memory, age-related differences are significantly reduced or even eliminated (e.g., Kausler, 1991; Mitchell & Perlmutter, 1986; Perlmutter & Mitchell, 1982; Rahhal, Hasher, & Colombe, 2001)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Directed Forgetting in Older Adults Using the Item and List Methods

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Sandra A. Sego¹, Jonathan M. Golding², Lawrence R. Gottlob²•Institutions (2)

American International College¹, University of Kentucky²

01 Mar 2006-Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition

TL;DR: It appears that both older and younger adults engage in adaptive memory strategies, similar to how different presentation types lead to the use of different theoretical mechanisms of directed forgetting.

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Abstract: Four experiments investigated age-group differences in directed forgetting Experiments 1A and 1B used the item method with recall (1A) and recognition (1B) Both of these experiments showed evidence of directed forgetting for both younger and older adults The list method was used in Experiments 2A (recall) and 2B (recognition) For these experiments, there was directed forgetting when recall, but not recognition, was the dependent measure Again, these results were found for younger and older adults These results are discussed in terms of how different presentation types lead to the use of different theoretical mechanisms of directed forgetting (eg, differential encoding, retrieval inhibition) Thus, it appears that both older and younger adults engage in adaptive memory strategies

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62 citations

"Oh, Honey, I Already Forgot That : ..." refers background or methods or result in this paper

...We suspect that participants in the Zellner and Bäuml (2006) and Sego et al. (2006) studies might have been more likely to spontaneously engage in effective forgetting strategies than our participants....
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...The lack of directed forgetting with older adults is surprising because previous studies have reported reliable costs with similar samples (Sego et al., 2006; Zellner & Bäuml, 2006)....
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...and Sego et al. (2006) appeared after we completed the first...
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...In other words, we obtained forgetting by altering older adults’ mental context, but failed to replicate the findings of intact directed forgetting in this age group reported by Zellner and Bäuml (2006) and Sego et al. (2006)....
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...and Sego et al. (2006). The findings of Zellner and Bäuml (2006)...
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