title: Inhibition of return following instructions to remember and forget.
abstract: Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slowed responding to a target that appears in the same rather than in a different location as a preceding peripheral onset cue. This study examined IOR as a function of whether the peripheral onset cue was a word that participants were directed to remember or forget. Using a modified item-method directed forgetting paradigm, words appeared one at a time to the left or right, followed by a remember or forget instruction. A target dot was then presented either in the same peripheral location as the preceding word or in a different location; participants made a speeded response to localize this target. Confirming compliance with the memory instructions, recall tests that alternated with blocks of IOR trials (Experiment 1) revealed few intrusions of to-be-forgotten words, and a final recognition test (Experiments 1 and 3) revealed more hits for to-be-remembered words than for to-be-forgotten words. Reaction times to the target dot revealed greater magnitude IOR following to-be-forgotten words than following to-be-remembered words (Experiments 1 and 3). Moreover, when compared to baseline IOR values (Experiment 2), it appeared that this difference resulted from a magnification of IOR following forget instructions and a reduction in IOR following remember instructions. These results demonstrate the usefulness of IOR as an index of memorial processes and suggest that attentional orienting may play a role in the remembering and forgetting of words presented in peripheral visual locations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1. Tracy.Taylor.Helmick@Dal.Ca
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning