The influence of cue probability on item and source judgments in item method directed forgetting

The current study examined how selective rehearsal strategies in item method directed forgetting are influenced by the probability of remember or forget cues from different sources. In four experiments, study words were presented by one of two sources in an item method directed forgetting paradigm. In all experiments, one source was mostly-remember (presenting twice as many remember as forget words) and the other source was mostly-forget (presenting twice as many forget as remember words). Participants completed item recognition tests (providing cue tags in Experiment 2) with source judgments. Item recognition of forget words was generally greater for the mostly-remember source than for the mostly forget source, whereas recognition of remember words was largely unaffected by source cue probability. Source judgments were consistent with heuristic guessing based on memory strength and knowledge of source cue probability. Experiment 4 analysed overt rehearsal, and showed that words from the mostly-remember source were more likely to be rehearsed prior to the memory cue. Results are discussed in terms of the influence that source cue probability knowledge has on selective rehearsal strategies, recognition decisions, and source memory attributions.