title: 'Forget me (not)?' - Remembering Forget-Items Versus Un-Cued Items in Directed Forgetting.
abstract: Humans need to be able to selectively control their memories. This capability is often investigated in directed forgetting (DF) paradigms. In item-method DF, individual items are presented and each is followed by either a forget- or remember-instruction. On a surprise test of all items, memory is then worse for to-be-forgotten items (TBF) compared to to-be-remembered items (TBR). This is thought to result mainly from selective rehearsal of TBR, although inhibitory mechanisms also appear to be recruited by this paradigm. Here, we investigate whether the mnemonic consequences of a forget instruction differ from the ones of incidental encoding, where items are presented without a specific memory instruction. Four experiments were conducted where un-cued items (UI) were interspersed and recognition performance was compared between TBR, TBF, and UI stimuli. Accuracy was encouraged via a performance-dependent monetary bonus. Experiments varied the number of items and their presentation speed and used either letter-cues or symbolic cues. Across all experiments, including perceptually fully counterbalanced variants, memory accuracy for TBF was reduced compared to TBR, but better than for UI. Moreover, participants made consistently fewer false alarms and used a very conservative response criterion when responding to TBF stimuli. Thus, the F-cue results in active processing and reduces false alarm rate, but this does not impair recognition memory beyond an un-cued baseline condition, where only incidental encoding occurs. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology and Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University Hospital Tübingen - University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bastian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zwissler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld Bielefeld, Germany ; Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, University of Bielefeld Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schindler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology and Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University Hospital Tübingen - University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Plewnia
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld Bielefeld, Germany ; Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, University of Bielefeld Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kissler
keywords: directed forgetting; episodic memory; inhibition (psychology); ironic process; item method; selective rehearsal