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Related Experiment Videos

Cease remembering: control processes in directed forgetting.

Kathleen L Hourihan1, Tracy L Taylor

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. klhourih@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|December 13, 2006
PubMed
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This study shows intentional forgetting involves cognitive control, similar to stopping actions. Participants could override memory instructions, demonstrating control over covert memory processes.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Memory formation is often viewed as an automatic process.
  • Directed forgetting paradigms explore the ability to selectively forget information.
  • Stop signal paradigms investigate the inhibition of prepotent responses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether intentional forgetting is a controllable covert action.
  • To explore the role of cognitive control in directed forgetting.
  • To examine the relationship between directed forgetting and response inhibition.

Main Methods:

  • Merged item-method directed forgetting with a stop signal paradigm.
  • Participants received instructions to remember or forget specific words.
  • A stop signal was presented to assess the ability to inhibit recall.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • An overall directed forgetting effect was observed, indicating successful intentional forgetting.
  • The magnitude of the directed forgetting effect was modulated by the delay of the forget signal.
  • Participants demonstrated the ability to counteract the default instruction to remember.

Conclusions:

  • Intentional forgetting engages cognitive control processes during memory encoding.
  • These cognitive control mechanisms are analogous to those used to inhibit overt actions.
  • Directed forgetting can be considered a controllable, covert cognitive process.