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A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

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Directed forgetting in incidental learning and recognition testing: support for a two-factor account.

Lili Sahakyan¹, Peter F Delaney

¹Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250, USA. sahakyan@cas.usf.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition

|August 3, 2005

Summary

Directed forgetting benefits recall by altering study strategies. This study found incidental learning reduced these benefits, while recognition testing showed benefits with longer lists, supporting a two-factor explanation.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Memory Research

Background:

Directed forgetting, instructing participants to forget information, typically enhances recall of subsequent information.
A prominent explanation suggests this benefit arises from strategy changes during study.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the strategy-based explanation of directed forgetting.
To reconcile findings inconsistent with the strategy-based account, specifically under incidental learning and recognition testing.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted to examine directed forgetting effects.
Experiment 1 compared incidental and intentional learning conditions.
Experiment 2 explored directed forgetting in recognition memory using varying list lengths and employed multinomial modeling for source memory analysis.

Main Results:

Incidental learning conditions attenuated the benefits of directed forgetting compared to intentional learning.
Directed forgetting benefits were observed in recognition testing, particularly with longer study lists.
Multinomial modeling provided insights into memory for source information.

Conclusions:

The findings support a strategy-based explanation for directed forgetting, as evidenced by the impact of learning conditions.
A two-factor account, potentially involving both strategic processing and other mechanisms, is proposed to explain directed forgetting phenomena across different learning and testing contexts.