Better source memory for remembered to-be-forgotten items than for remembered to-be-remembered items

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Memory Research

Background:

• The directed forgetting effect demonstrates that individuals are less likely to recall items they were instructed to forget.
• This effect is well-established for item memory but its generalization to source memory remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether the directed forgetting effect observed in item memory extends to source memory.
• To examine how instructions to forget influence the memory of item sources (e.g., color, location).

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted with participants studying items presented in different source colors or locations.
• Participants were instructed to either remember or forget specific items.
• A multinomial processing tree model was used to analyze item memory, source memory, and guessing.

Main Results:

• The directed forgetting effect was consistently replicated for item memory across all experiments.
• Source memory for recognized to-be-forgotten items was unexpectedly stronger than for to-be-remembered items.
• This indicates a dissociation between item and source memory effects under directed forgetting instructions.

Conclusions:

• The directed forgetting effect does not simply transfer from item memory to source memory.
• Source memory appears to be disproportionately enhanced for items that are remembered despite a forget instruction.
• This suggests distinct memory processes are involved in item and source memory recall under directed forgetting.