Repeated failures to obtain selective directed forgetting in lab and online samples and variations in stimuli

Previous research has produced mixed findings as to whether it is possible to selectively forget a subset of items while maintaining access to the remaining items from the same episode, using a modified version of the list-method directed forgetting (LMDF) paradigm. The present study includes six attempts to obtain the selective directed forgetting (SDF) effect with the aim of exploring its underlying mechanisms. However, despite variations in the stimuli and samples, which included both lab and online participants, we failed to obtain SDF across five experiments. In one of the experiments, we observed what appeared to be an SDF effect; however, the unexpected baseline differences across the conditions make the interpretation of this result equivocal. In contrast, standard directed forgetting effect was obtained when an LMDF condition was included in the design. An evaluation of the previous literature in combination with the present study raises questions about the reliability of the SDF phenomenon.