title: To forget or not to forget: the effect of probability of test on directed forgetting.
abstract: Two experiments investigated how individuals use explicit memory cues that designate different probabilities of test. As in typical directed forgetting studies, subjects received words explicitly cued as having either a 0% or a 100% chance of being on a subsequent memory test (i.e. forget and remember cues, respectively). In addition, some words were explicitly cued as having the potential to be either forgotten or remembered (i.e. a 50% cue). Recall of 50% words was between that of 0% and 100% words. In addition, the presence of 50% words lowered recall of the 100% words compared to that of a control group that did not receive 50% words, but received the same number of 100% words. A think-aloud task indicated that these results were due to 50% words being treated like either 100% of 0% words at encoding. The results are discussed in terms of the effect of different probabilities of test on the strategic processing and representation of information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA.psy228@ukcc.uky.edu
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Golding
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Roper
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hauselt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011337:Probability Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning