title: The fate of being forgotten: information that is initially forgotten is judged as less important.
abstract: Is forgotten information deemed less important than remembered information? The present study examined potential biases regarding the importance of information that was initially forgotten. In Experiment 1 participants studied words paired with varying point values that denoted their importance and were encouraged to recall higher value words. Participants recalled more high-value words on an initial test. However, on a later cued recall test for the values, initially forgotten words were rated as less valuable than remembered words. Experiment 2 used a similar procedure with the exception that participants rated the importance of traits when evaluating a significant other (e.g., honest, intelligent). Participants were more likely to recall highly valued traits but regarded forgotten traits as less valuable than remembered traits. These results suggest that a forgetting bias exists: If information is initially forgotten, it is later deemed as less important.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA. castel@ucla.edu
authors.forename: Alan D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Castel
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: McCabe
authors.forename: Nicholas C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Soderstrom
authors.forename: Vanessa M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Loaiza
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D014825:Vocabulary; D014936:Word Association Tests