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The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

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Intentional forgetting is easier after two "shots" than one.

Lili Sahakyan¹, Peter F Delaney, Emily R Waldum

¹Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA. l_sahaky@uncg.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition

|March 5, 2008

Summary

The list-method directed forgetting effect is stronger for items with greater context strength, not just item strength. Spaced presentations enhanced forgetting, supporting the context hypothesis of directed forgetting.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Memory Research

Background:

The list-method directed forgetting paradigm is a key paradigm for studying memory control processes.
Understanding the factors influencing the directed forgetting effect is crucial for memory theory.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether the magnitude of the list-method directed forgetting effect depends on item strength.
To differentiate the effects of item strength versus context strength on directed forgetting.

Main Methods:

Three experiments manipulated item strength using spaced presentations, processing time, and processing depth.
Assumptions about item and context strength were guided by the "one-shot" hypothesis of context storage.
The directed forgetting effect was measured by comparing recall for 'remember' and 'forget' lists.

Main Results:

Greater directed forgetting occurred for strong items compared to weak items only when strength was manipulated via spaced presentations (Experiment 3).
When item strength was increased without affecting context strength (Experiments 1 and 2), directed forgetting was equivalent for strong and weak items.
These findings indicate that context strength plays a critical role in the directed forgetting effect.

Conclusions:

The results support the context hypothesis of directed forgetting, suggesting that directed forgetting is primarily driven by changes in context strength.
The study highlights the importance of distinguishing between item and context strength when examining memory phenomena.
Future research should further explore the interplay between item and context strength in various memory paradigms.