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Published on: June 18, 2014
Amount of postcue encoding predicts amount of directed forgetting.
Bernhard Pastötter1, Karl-Heinz Bäuml
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Regensburg University, Germany.
Summary
Directed forgetting research shows that intentionally forgetting List 1 improves recall for List 2. Increased encoding time for List 2 enhances List 1 forgetting but not List 2 recall.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Research
- Human Memory
Background:
- Directed forgetting involves cues to forget List 1 before learning List 2.
- Forget cues typically impair List 1 recall and enhance List 2 recall.
- The influence of postcue encoding on directed forgetting is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how the amount of postcue encoding affects directed forgetting.
- To determine if List 1 forgetting and List 2 enhancement are similarly influenced by encoding time.
- To propose a dual-mechanism account for directed forgetting.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted using the list-method directed forgetting paradigm.
- Participants were presented with List 1, followed by a cue to remember or forget.
- The amount of encoding time for List 2 was systematically varied.
Main Results:
- Increased postcue encoding time amplified List 1 forgetting.
- Postcue encoding time did not significantly affect List 2 enhancement.
- The forget cue impacted all List 1 items but only early List 2 items.
Conclusions:
- List 1 forgetting and List 2 enhancement are dissociable phenomena.
- List 1 forgetting may result from reduced item accessibility.
- List 2 enhancement might stem from a reset of encoding processes.
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