title: Retrieval inhibition in directed forgetting following severe closed-head injury.
abstract: A variant of the list method directed forgetting procedure was used to examine the role of inhibition in memory performance following severe closed-head injury (CHI). Twenty-four participants with severe CHI and 24 controls studied picture and word stimuli in both forget and remember conditions. Memory testing for the to-be-forgotten and to-be-remembered items consisted of a free-recall test followed by a source-monitoring task. Despite poorer recall performance, the participants with CHI exhibited a directed forgetting effect similar to that in controls. Item recognition scores indicated that the inhibited items were not forgotten but rather were items whose accessibility had been lowered. These findings suggest that residual memory deficits in patients with severe CHI are unlikely to reflect inefficient retrieval inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington State University, WA, USA. schmitter-e@wsu.edu
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmitter-Edgecombe
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ventura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning