title: Intending to forget is not easy: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.
abstract: Previous researches have shown that recognition accuracy is lower for items cued to-be-forgotten (TBF) than to-be-remembered (TBR). Does directed forgetting help people forget more items than non-directed forgetting? Here, we modified the directed forgetting paradigm by adding a non-cue condition (NC). Consequently, non-directed forgetting would occur in NC. Behavioral results showed higher recognition accuracy for TBF than NC items, indicating that directed forgetting is less effective than non-directed forgetting. Electrophysiological results indicated that: (1) Remembered TBF items evoke an increased late positive component (LPC) than remembered NC items; (2) compared with remembered NC items, remembered TBF items showed a pronounced left-lateralized old/new effect and a reduced right-lateralized reversed old/new effect; (3) a right-lateralized reversed old/new effect was observed for forgotten TBF, but it was absent for forgotten NC items. These results demonstrate that the TBF items have a greater memory trace than the NC items. Forgetting cue has little effect of forgetting item from memory, and it might prompt subject to process or at least focus attention on the TBF items.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China; Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
authors.forename: Heming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China.
authors.forename: Bihua
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China; School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China. Electronic address: lifh@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Fuhong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Directed forgetting; ERP; Memory trace; Non-directed forgetting; Old/new effect